If You Take Things Apart
by CatsbytheGreat
Summary: Loki and Tony have an interesting relationship, which may result in them getting killed or maybe, possibly, them being friends.
1. Keep Your Enemies Close

Hey all! I've been updating more frequently on my AO3 account, which you can find here: /users/TheGreatCatsby/works

Otherwise, I'm in the process of updating everything on this account.

I've decided to make this series into one story. Which is why the previous Keep Your Enemies Close story was moved to a chapter in this one, since I can't make series here like I can on AO3.

For my Tumblr, you can go here for random bloggy fandom stuff.

Enjoy!

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On the list of "Things I Don't Want to Do Today" getting kidnapped ranked very high. It ranked so high, in fact, that it wasn't even on the list because such a situation was unthinkable. Tony Stark had made a vow never to get kidnapped after the first time, because anyone who wanted to kidnap Tony Stark probably had less than good intentions.

One might even go so far as to call those individuals criminals.

This particular kidnapping happened right when Tony was moonlighting as Iron Man alongside the Avengers, fighting a group of Doombots set loose on New York City. NYC seemed to be a favorite target of Doctor Doom, and every other villain who wanted their evil schemes to be foiled in a decidedly public manner. Tony didn't mind this so much; it meant he never had to stray far from the tower he called home, though it did mean that insurance rates for said tower went up. But he was rich. Sacrifices could be made.

Tony didn't remember much. He remembered one of the Doombots rudely slamming into his suit from the back, causing him to hurdle into a building, through glass windows, and tumble to a stop in the middle of an office, where some very shocked workers ran away. Then something hit him on the back of the head, and—silence.

Tony knew he was kidnapped when he woke up because his suit was off and his hands were tied behind his back. Pepper wouldn't do that unless she were really pissed off at him, and he didn't remember doing anything completely terrible lately, so he could only deduce that the next logical answer would be a kidnapping. But by whom? And for what?

The room was dark, and cold. The metal that Tony leaned against was cold. The floor was made of concrete and wasn't self-heating so that felt like sitting on a block of ice.

From the corner came a rustling sound, and Tony thought, good, someone else, maybe we can form a plan and escape! Then his mind recoiled, and he remembered Yinsen, and thought, maybe not. He couldn't get close to those who had been kidnapped. They would be used against him.

And then the person spoke. "Awake. Finally."

Tony's insides nearly ran outside.

That was Loki's voice.

Loki—motherfucking Thor's brother, the motherfucking God of Motherfucking Mischief (Tony had been spending too much time with Fury) who nearly destroyed the whole of New York and who threw Tony Stark out a goddamn window.

Tony's eyes adjusted to the dark enough to confirm that yes, in fact, the motherfucker across the (rather small, now that he could see) cell, dressed in the same Asgardian armor as when he came, minus the gold and the helmet, was Loki. And he was smirking.

Bastard.

"What," Tony said, "the fuck are you doing here?"

"Same as you, I suppose," Loki said, sounding bored. "Waiting to find out what happens next."

Tony rolled his eyes. Of course Loki wouldn't have answers. That was like expecting a dog to talk.

"Do you know who kidnapped us?"

"I suspect we will find out," Loki said.

Tony sighed. He noticed that Loki's hands were bound—or at least, they looked bound—behind his back as well. And then Tony remembered what should have happened to Loki a long time ago—

"Aren't you supposed to be in Asgard?"

Loki grinned wide, showing all his teeth. "Yes."

Motherfucker.

Tony wished, more than anything, that he had his suit so he could call Fury and get Loki the fuck out of there.

Instead he couldn't do anything but glare at Loki, who looked strangely satisfied by this, and then stare awkwardly at the ground while trying to come up with a plan that allowed his captors to kill Loki while he, Stark, escaped safe and sound and preferably with everything attached.

Then the door opened, and a guard stepped in.

He was human. That was good. Tony could deduce from this, soundly, that he was on Earth and no super weird shit was going to happen.

The guard said something in German to Loki, who glared at him. Tony wondered if Norse gods spoke German. Apparently, they could speak English well enough, and didn't speak…whatever Norse god aliens from another planet spoke.

Loki stood up, after a long moment. Apparently he understood.

The guard took a step forward.

And everything went to hell.

Loki's suddenly free hands slammed the guard into the wall with an audible crack that had Tony wincing, and he was so focused on the suddenness of everything that he forgot that the door was open, and he could escape.

"Who sent you?" Loki hissed to the guard.

The guard muttered something in German. It didn't seem to make Loki happy, because seconds later there were daggers in his hands where there were none before.

"I will repeat, and you will answer if you value your life, who sent you?"

The guard yelled.

Loki did something very nasty with the daggers, and Tony had to look away for fear of being sick. Suffice it to say, that guard had ceased to live, not with a bang, but with a gurgle. A sickening, sickening gurgle.

Then a thud.

"You can open your eyes," Loki said.

Tony didn't trust him, but he opened his eyes anyway because he thought seeing might be useful for now.

The guard lay on the ground in a pool of his own blood, and more blood had slicked down the wall. Loki gripped one dagger in his hand and vanished the other and yeah, that wasn't strange at all.

Then more guards started rushing into the room. Loki managed to stab one more before two grabbed him and pushed him back into the wall. Tony didn't put up much of a fight, still too dazed, as two guards grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him away from the dead guard and the blood.

"Clean this up," one of the men shouted, with a German accent, and two others left the room. "And start on him." He gestured to Loki, and four guards dragged him out.

Leaving Tony with the man who apparently was the leader, the two guards holding him, and the corpse of some other man who happened to draw the short straw that day.

"So," Tony said, slow and awkward. "What am I doing here, anyway?"

The man grinned. Tony committed his image to memory, because that sort of thing might be useful. He had blond hair and pale skin, and looked only slightly older that Tony, and he wore a green military uniform with a band around his arm, which Tony couldn't make out. His eyes were a startling blue. He could have been Steve Rogers if Steve Rogers were older and evil.

"You will find out, in time," he said.

Goddamn cryptic evil men.

"Who are you?" Tony asked.

"I am Kolman," the man said. "And that is all the information you shall get out of me."

"Where are we?" Tony asked.

Kolman simply ignored him and watched as two of the guards re-entered and began cleaning up the corpse of their colleague, and the blood left behind.

Tony had a terrible feeling about all of this. Nothing about being imprisoned by German soldiers alongside Loki, of all people, would end well.

The guards threw Loki into the room three hours later. Loki coughed and spit out something that looked suspiciously like blood, and then said, "Hydra is experimenting."

"Is that code for something?" Tony asked. He wanted to ask what they'd done to Loki. Not out of concern. He was wondering if they would do the same to him.

Loki gave him the sort of disdainful look usually reserved for when Thor was being particularly dense. "Hydra is the organization who captured us."

Tony gasped. "Oh, I've heard of them." They were the people who tried to make their own super-soldier serum, who messed with the Tesseract the first time. "Wait, but I thought they were destroyed. Or something."

"That would explain why you're sitting in their holding cells."

Tony wanted to smack him. "What did they want?"

"Magic." Loki licked his lips. "They want to know how it works, how they can make it work with their science, and they plan to use you to build the technology to integrate such magic."

"That can't be done," Tony breathed. It sounded too good to be true. He'd love to get his hands on information like that.

"It is being done as we speak," Loki said. "Doctor Doom has tried to fuse magic and science as one in his creations. Hydra cannot, understandably, kidnap and hold hostage a leader of a country, so they have made due with me instead."

"Made due?" Tony repeated. "You're a sorcerer! You're an expert!"

"I am also less than agreeable," Loki said. "I have other places to be, and I care little for the fate of these mortals. I would burn this place to the ground if I could."

Tony frowned. Loki would, he knew that. He'd been thrown out a window. Loki hadn't thought twice about that overreaction, so why hadn't he burned down this place? Unless…

"Why can't you?"

Loki's expression twisted in displeasure. It was oddly satisfying, seeing him upset over something beyond his control. And Tony knew it was beyond his control before he even said anything.

"Hydra has been experimenting with data based off the readings SHIELD gained from our last encounter," Loki said, "and have been using it to dampen my magic. It does not erase it completely, as you saw—"

"Ah, yes, the bloodbath with the disappearing daggers."

"—but it does limit certain abilities, such as the ability to teleport, and to use large amounts of my magic," Loki continued. "I could kill the guards but I would have to kill all of them. I would have to find my way out of the building, because this technology blankets the whole building, not just this cell. I could try to do all of this now, but I might fail. I must gain more information."

"More information?"

"Their weaknesses," Loki said. "Rather like I gained yours."

"You lost that battle," Tony pointed out. "Or do you not remember when the Hulk smashed you into the floor of my beautiful new tower?"

"You are aware of the saying where one loses the battle but wins the war, yes?" Loki asked.

Tony frowned. That was a saying he'd rather forget, if only because it would mean that Loki would win this particular battle, and he was tired and hungry and didn't really want to deal with any of this right now.

"I am curious," Loki continued, "because knowing how to combine magic and technology can be…useful."

"No," Tony said. He hadn't really meant to say that out loud, it just sort of came out. What he really wanted to do was run screaming from the room and someone destroy Loki along with everything else, because damn it, Loki was going to gain something from this imprisonment that he'd use to bite the Avengers in the ass (collectively) later and Tony couldn't abide by that.

In theory. In practice he would have to deal, because he couldn't really do anything from this prison.

If there was a way to erase Loki's memory, he would.

Loki leaned against the wall. He looked smug.

Tony wanted to hit something. He wondered how long it would take for Loki to fully grasp their technology. He wondered if there would be Lokibots running around Manhattan next time.

"I hate you," Tony said, just because it was too quiet.

Loki watched him from the other side of the cell. "The feeling is entirely mutual."

Three days later the guards had taken Loki in and out of the cell, dragging him out while he fought tooth and nail and killed a few more guards in the process, and tossing him back in like an overly used rag doll. Tony was grateful that they weren't doing much with him, and he wanted to keep it that way. The most the guards paid him any mind was when they gave him stale bread and cold water, and they barely even looked at him.

In the back of his head, he wondered how long it would take for the Avengers to show up. They were slacking.

Loki looked worse for wear every time he ended up back in the cell, pale and bleeding and sometimes even unconscious. Tony didn't want to feel sorry for him because, well, Loki had kind of sort of definitely destroyed half of New York city and killed hundreds of people. Because he wanted to.

They didn't talk, mostly because Tony didn't want to form any sort of connection with Thor's wayward brother, and because Loki looked like a feral cat who would scratch up his face if he so much as breathed wrong.

(That might have been an exaggeration, but days stuck in a cell does that to people. Tony tended to think of Loki in Bruce's terms—a bag of cats—except all the cats were feral and large and were actually probably tigers. Magical tigers. That wouldn't be out of the ordinary at all.)

"You're a bag of cats, you know that?" Tony said, just to break the silence. Because even if Tony didn't want to talk to Loki, he could only go so long without talking at all.

Loki glared at him. He was curled against the opposite wall. Like a cat.

"I am not a bag of cats," he said.

"Not your best comeback," Tony pointed out, "but I'm willing to let it slide if you can figure out how to get me home in one piece."

"Tesseract weapons," Loki said.

Tony stared at him.

There was no way he'd just said—

"Tesseract weapons," Loki repeated.

"What?"

"Science and magic," Loki explained, sounding like he was talking to a child. "Weaponry powered by the Tesseract. They have it, here, Hydra, rather like your SHIELD had it on their aircraft. They plan to use it. Much more powerful than imbuing technology with simple magic."

"But the Tesseract is in Asgard," Tony said. Then he thought about it. Loki was supposed to be in Asgard, too. "Isn't it?"

"For now." Loki looked as though he was planning something. Tony didn't want to think about it. Then he remembered that he should be protecting the planet, and as a result he had to think about it.

"What are you planning?" he asked.

"It would hardly be a good plan if I told you," Loki said, stretching. Bones popped, sickeningly, but Loki didn't seem to mind this as much as Tony minded it, which was a lot. "Suffice it to say I simply find myself in need of good weaponry with which to fight a…very special kind of battle."

"And you think Hydra's weaponry is something you can use?"

"I think Hydra's weaponry is a good idea, and something I can vastly improve upon."

Tony watched him. He really wanted a drink. Or two. Or ten. Also a different cell mate. Also to not be in this cell.

"When you stare into the abyss the abyss stares back," Loki said, suddenly. Tony realized that they were, effectively, staring at each other, and he looked away, because he definitely didn't want to see what was in Loki's eyes, now, or ever.

He also didn't want to think about those words, and what they meant, for either one of them.

Two days of uncomfortable silence after Loki's strange abyss insight, Tony found himself alone in the cell when the door swung open, and in the place of the guards stood Loki himself, clutching two knives, leather torn up, and looking like something out of a horror film.

In other words, there was blood. Everywhere. Tony didn't want to think about what those daggers had done, and what they were about to do to him.

"You know, Loki, I was a good cell-mate, I think. Didn't talk too much, didn't come home at two in the morning drunk off my ass with a girl hanging off my arm-"

"Silence," Loki growled. "Do you want to escape this prison or not?"

That shut him up. "Escape? What? You're not going to like cut my body up with scary cookie cutters and then feed me to the cats in your head?"

Loki frowned at him. "Your mind is strange," he said after a moment. "But no, I have decided to keep you alive. You have use."

"Fuck." Tony scrambled to his feet, then swayed a bit because his feet hadn't been used in a few days, and they weren't happy with him. Everything was cold and he felt surprisingly tired.

Still, he staggered over to Loki in what had to be the most pathetic display of escape ever. If Loki thought it was pathetic, he didn't say anything. He just gave Tony a burning look of disapproval, with a side of "pathetic weak mortal" that seemed to be ten times worse.

It seemed that Loki, in a burst of amazing foresight, had killed all of Hydra's personnel before freeing Tony from the cell. In the same way a pet owner is thankful when their dog brings them a dead squirrel as a gift, Tony was thankful to Loki for taking care of everyone before they left. How…thoughtful.

They ended up outside, where Tony realized, a bit late, that his suit was still inside.

"I destroyed it," Loki said.

"Why?"

Loki shrugged. "You should have no trouble building a new one."

"Fuck you." Tony looked up at the sky. Then around. They were in the middle of a forest. He wished Hydra had put themselves in a city. "What the hell do we do now?"

Loki grabbed his arm, and Tony didn't even have time to react before everything disappeared, and the ground beneath his feet was no longer there, and he kind of couldn't breathe, and that was completely normal and then he slammed into the hard floor and that was also completely normal and when he opened his eyes—

He was on the top floor of his tower.

"Damn," he breathed. Because what he'd give to be able to teleport and Loki did it without even thinking. Across half the world. Which was cool and terrifying at the same time.

"I believe this is where you live," Loki said, smirking and looking at the huge window which he'd thrown Tony through. Tony stood up and leaned against the bar. He definitely wasn't going to tempt Loki to do that again. He probably would, too. Just because it was there.

"It is. What now?"

Loki gave him an alien look, as though he could not comprehend what Tony meant, what language he even spoke. "Is there supposed to be anything else?"

"I mean, we spent a week in prison together, in a cell, and, you know, you helped me escape and you kind of took the brunt of Hydra's treatment for me and, I don't know, that sort of experience seems to deem something extra, like maybe—"

He was talking to much. He realized that he'd wasted time. What SHIELD wouldn't give to have Loki to themselves, to find out his secrets, to bait him to their side even. And Tony had wasted his time with Loki sleeping and making stupid comments.

He was a bad SHIELD agent. Which was why, incidentally, he wasn't a SHIELD agent.

Loki flicked his wrist. "Goodbye, Stark," he said, and then disappeared.

"Sir," JARVIS' voice intoned from above, "your fellow teammates are incoming."

"Incoming," Tony repeated, dazed. Loki had just disappeared. Like it was easy. "Wait—where were they?"

"En route to Germany, where they believed you were being held."

Tony frowned. His teammates didn't know Loki was with him, likely. Debriefing would take a long, long time. He wondered if it would be easier to pretend that he was alone.

He turned to the bar, thinking about a drink, and saw something there that was most definitely not alcohol. Tony blinked. His eyes weren't horribly messed up. Resting atop the bar was a jagged silver dagger with a deep green, almost dark enough to be black, hilt.

Tony picked the dagger up. As far as parting gifts went, this was actually pretty awesome, but for some reason he wasn't sure awesome was what Loki had in mind when he left it.

"JARVIS," Tony said, "I'm going to need to spend some time in the labs. Turn everything on. I've got a lot of work to do."

"Yes, sir."

Dagger in hand (and wasn't that a scary thought, Tony with a dagger), Tony went off to lock himself in the labs until the rest of his team arrived. He was fairly certain that Loki meant more than "goodbye" when he'd left the dagger behind, and ever the scientist, Tony wanted to find out what it was.


	2. Things Fall Together

**Note: Enjoy! This is also on Archive of Our Own under the same name. **

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Tony had approximately three hours in the lab running scans on Loki's dagger before his teammates arrived at the tower, bringing with them an irate Nick Fury and a less irate Phil Coulson for debriefing. Not that their arrival mattered—Tony stared at the readings on the computer screen, willing the information to burn into his mind.

"Sir," JARVIS intoned, "your teammates and SHIELD are here and request your presence in the meeting room on the top floor."

"I'm busy," Tony said.

"Agent Coulson insists."

"I'm busy." A new set of data came in. A magnetic scan of the dagger. Tony pursed his lips.

"Nick Fury insists."

"He would, wouldn't he?" Tony sighed and stood up, stretching. "JARVIS, on a scale of one to nuclear explosion, how do you think they'll react if I tell them about Loki?"

"I would advise telling the truth, sir."

Tony scoffed at the ceiling. "You're no fun."

"You did not program me for fun, sir."

Tony sighed and walked out of the lab, deciding that a quick let's-get-this-over-with approach was better than locking himself in his lab and pretending that he was under siege for a week (or one day—Natasha was really good at infiltration.) Within five minutes he was walking into a meeting room full of tired, familiar, worried, and one angry face staring back at him. The entire team was assembled, save for Thor. The doors swung shut behind him and Tony spread his arms wide and smiled.

It belatedly occurred to him that he hadn't even showered. Or changed.

"You look like shit," Clint said.

"You don't look so hot yourself." Tony sauntered over to the head of the table and took a seat, which happened to face directly across from Nick Fury. Tony didn't look in that direction, instead focusing on Coulson. Not that Coulson was much better; his strange calm in times of trouble could be unnerving. Coulson could also kill him in five seconds even though he looked like a school principal for an elementary school.

"Are you okay?" Steve broke in, all concern and good intention. "We found the facility—it was destroyed. What happened?"

"Funny story," Tony started, only to be interrupted by Fury who snapped, "I doubt it. Get to the point, Stark."

"Fine." Tony took a deep breath. "So I don't know what happened during the Doombot fight because I was knocked out and when I woke up I was with Hydra."

"We beat Doom, if you couldn't tell," Clint said. "He isn't the ruler of the free world, at any rate. But how did Hydra explode?"

"The better question is, how didn't you find me for so long?" And that got them silent, though to everyone's credit, no one looked away.

"We assumed that you were taken by Doom," Coulson spoke up. "When it became clear that Doom did not have you, we had to look for others who would take Doom's attack as a distraction in which to take you. We had to do a lot of searching and eventually we came upon Hydra, whom we thought had been eliminated during the last world war. By the time we got to you, you had escaped."

Tony nodded, leaning back in his chair. "Alright, alright, that's good." And it was. It was better than his team leaving him for dead, and for a moment he felt guilty that the thought had even entered his mind, but he brushed the guilt aside.

"So how did you escape?" Natasha asked, leaning forward and staring at him.

"Well, funny story—"

"Stark," Fury growled.

"Hydra had some plans, you see, and I was only half of it."

"Who was the other half?" Bruce spoke up for the first time. He looked like he'd been deep in thought, almost as if he'd been trying to figure out where Tony had got to without being told.

Tony allowed the tension to build up in the silence that followed before dropping his metaphorical atom bomb. "Loki."

Predictably, there were some reactions, none of them pleased. Clint banged his hand on the table and yelled, "What the fuck? That motherfucker is supposed to be fucking in prison! Where the fuck is Thor?"

(Which was true, Thor was absent, but this was a common occurrence seeing as he was from another planet. The commute was horrendous.)

There were gasps from the others, a small sigh from Coulson, and Fury barked, "Explain."

"He was there and they did stuff to him, I don't know what but it hurt him," Tony explained, "and Loki said they wanted to fuse magic and human technology like Doom was doing, but with Tesseract weapons, and were trying to use Loki's magic and eventually Loki killed everyone in the building and teleported me to the tower and, um, left me here. Which sounds kind of improbable and I'm kind of wondering why he didn't kill me too, but maybe it was solidarity or something."

"Or maybe he needs you," Natasha said. Tony hated her sometimes. He'd been wanting to keep that part a secret.

"He definitely didn't do it out of the goodness of his heart," Clint added. "He doesn't have one."

"A heart?"

"Stop it," Fury cut in. "We have a situation. We have a mad Norse god on the loose who apparently has a plan and we have no idea what is going to happen. And Hydra's in operation again. You two," he gestured to Clint and Natasha, "go to the Hydra base and find out what you can."

Clint and Natasha nodded and stood up. Fury turned his gaze on Tony next. "I need you to stay in the tower and if Loki shows up again, I need you to keep him talking until we can arrive."

"I'm the bate," Tony said. "Not sure I like it."

"You have no choice," Coulson said.

And once Coulson had spoken, there was really nothing Tony could do. For all the money Tony had, Coulson had authority. Which apparently meant something. In this case, that Tony had to stay in the tower.

He didn't say anything about the dagger. He didn't say anything about what Loki had planned. He didn't know why he didn't say these things, but part of him didn't want to be thrown out a window or killed so he figured he'd might as well keep Loki's secrets.

That's what he told himself.

The interesting thing about Loki's dagger was that it was a magic dagger.

Tony expected as much, which said a lot about his life. Four years ago Tony wouldn't have expected a magical anything, but now a unicorn could appear in his lobby and he wouldn't even bat an eye, he'd just take it to the lab and start analyzing it and perhaps be a little worried about where it came from and whether it would be friendly with horses. Perhaps he would even experiment with unicorn-horse hybrids, just because.

The knife being magic wasn't a revelation, but Tony could make several inferences about its purpose. Through testing and various scans and samples and other forms of science that Tony was too impatient to explain to people who asked what he was doing in the lab, like Pepper and Steve and on one occasion Bruce (who would have understood but this was Tony's secret project) he deduced that the knife was meant to poison as well as cauterize the wound as it went in. He assumed that this was just an asshole move on Loki's part, in that the knife would lull the victim into believing their cut wasn't that bad when it didn't bleed out, only to have them die of poison later.

Fitting.

That wasn't the important part. The important part, Tony realized, was that after he found out what the magic on the dagger was for, he started wondering how the fuck Loki got the magic to be part of the dagger in the first place. Tony couldn't separate it. Yet the magic hadn't been created with the dagger…or had it?

A week later, Clint and Natasha reported that a few tesseract weapon schematics were missing from Hydra's former base and that other Hydra bases had cropped up around Europe. Tony ignored this. Mostly because when he received the report, at three in the morning on a Tuesday, he'd just started wondering about whether the dagger was a magic dagger or a dagger with added magic. And there was a huge difference.

And then a voice behind him said, "You mortals are exceptionally slow on the uptake."

Tony whipped around to find Loki standing behind him, close enough that he took a step back and bumped into his desk and then jumped and nearly knocked the dagger on the floor. "Mother fucking fuck what are you doing here?"

Loki grinned. There was nothing happy about it. It made Tony want to jump out a window. "I was testing you, Stark."

"Oh. Right." Tony inwardly cursed. He'd known, but he'd also hoped that Loki would kind of disappear. The universe wasn't kind. "Did I pass?"

"Yes." Loki stepped closer. "Would you like to know your reward?"

Loki stood nearly a head taller than Tony, so that Tony had to tilt his head up to look into Loki's eyes, which were a strange blue-green color that seemed the opposite of the color that someone evil would have. (Tony pictured pitch black eyes. Even though none of the evil people he knew had those.) Loki seemed unnaturally pale, and tired from this close. He looked thinner. He'd been busy.

It took awhile for Tony to form an answer, struggling to not think about how close Loki was and how he was kind of pressed into a corner and JARVIS hadn't said anything which meant that Loki was probably controlling the building, or at least blocking certain vital processes that usually allowed for Tony's protection. Finally, Tony said, "I'm not really sure. Last time you killed like one hundred people."

"Would you rather I had not?" Loki asked. "We would still be imprisoned. Perhaps they would have started to torture you."

"What do you do when you're not here being all evil dictator, anyway?" Tony asked.

"None of your concern," Loki snapped, stepping away. "It was foolish to think that a mortal could—"

"Now hold on, don't start with that mortal stuff. You know I'm smart. Hell, I am probably smarter than half the people you call gods that you know." He paused, taking in Loki's annoyed expression. "You need help." Another pause. "My help."

"Perhaps not," Loki said, "but if you want to pretend you are more important as you are, be my guest."

"Admit it."

Loki crossed the space between them in the time it took Tony to blink, which was unfortunate, because it gave him no time to escape from Loki's hands encircling his neck and a dagger to his throat. Tony realized that it was the magic dagger (or the dagger with magic), the one that could poison. Not that it mattered. A dagger to the throat would kill him either way. The universe was just special like that.

"Stark, I am not asking," Loki said. "Do not pretend that you have control over something you cannot possibly hope to understand. I am telling you that you will make something for me."

"Why?" Tony croaked.

Loki let go of him and the dagger vanished. "I wish to use the weapons."

"I'm not gonna arm you against Asgard and Thor, you know," Tony said. "I'm not stupid, and you're not my friend. You're not even on my team. You threw me out a window."

"And I saved you from imprisonment and torture," Loki reminded him, "or are we so quick to forget? You owe me a debt and I've come to collect."

"That isn't how it works!" Tony cried. "I don't remember promising you a debt. Can't you just do stuff like that because you're a good person?"

Loki's expression darkened considerably. "You would be a fool to think I am capable of being a good person. To trust me as such would be suicide."

"Call me suicidal," Tony said, "but sometimes I like to see the best in people."

Loki raised an eyebrow. "Either you are more of an idiot than I imagined—"

"Nah, I totally thought you were gonna ask for something," Tony said with a laugh. "Just, weapon building, really? Couldn't you go to Doom for that? He knows how to fuse weapons with magic. I bet he'd know how to make tesseract guns and all that."

"But Doom lacks what you have," Loki said. "He lacks the tesseract. He lacks access to my former weapon that housed a certain powerful gem. And he lacks access to SHIELD."

"I don't have the tesseract," Tony said, frowning. He'd remember if he did. He got drunk sometimes but he wasn't in the habit of misplacing really powerful artifacts.

"You have a similar power source," Loki said, eyes settling on Tony's chest, where the arc reactor glowed softly through the fabric of Tony's shirt.

Tony suddenly felt naked, stripped bare. He wanted to cover the reactor with his hand but knew such a thing would be useless, and would only give Loki more incentive to fuck with him.

"This isn't the same thing," Tony said, "I need it."

And he hated to admit it, but to pretend it was nothing would cost him dearly. Loki would see through the lies.

Loki made a humming noise and said, "But that is not the only arc reactor you possess—"

"Hold on," Tony said, "you're from another planet, how do you know what it is?"

"Barton told me," Loki said, and it was the first time he'd mentioned Clint's time under mind control. Tony never thought about it, but now he wondered exactly what else Loki had gotten out of Clint.

"Son of a bitch."

"One way of putting it." Loki stepped forward, eyes still on the reactor. He looked hungry in a way that had nothing to do with food. "Now, Stark, your life is in my hands. You will assist me, or I will take the arc reactor from your chest and leave you here to die."

Tony swallowed. No good options. He couldn't work with Loki, nor could he just give up the arc reactor. Easy way or hard way, no in-betweens. No middle way where they both won. Loki stepped closer, raised his hand, and Tony felt a buzzing begin in his head—

"FOR SHIELD!"

An arrow whizzed past Tony's ear and slammed into Loki's shoulder, propelling him back. Tony whipped his head around to see Clint release another arrow, which hit Loki's chest. He was stringing a third arrow before Tony could even ask, "How?"

"JARVIS," Natasha said, slipping through the door behind Clint. "Alerted us to Loki's presence."

The third arrow hit Loki in the other shoulder, but it was smaller. Loki cried out in pain and rage, but slumped against the floor, looking like an elaborate pincushion. Tony stared.

"And he didn't tell me about this?" he asked, appalled. "I thought I was gonna die!"

"If JARVIS had told you, Loki would've run," Natasha said, moving past him with a pair of handcuffs. "Luckily he didn't, so we can take him to SHIELD."

"SHIELD can't hold him," Tony said. He needed to sit down. He sat on the floor. "They tried last time."

"Well we got some of the anti-magic tech plans from Hydra," Natasha said, cuffing Loki and pulling the arrows out. Blood began to flow from Loki's wounds, staining his black and green garments dark. "SHIELD put them to use, figuring that the bate plan would work, which it did."

"We got him," Clint said over his earpiece. To Natasha he added, "SHIELD will be here momentarily."

"Wait, wait," Tony stood up again. "He—in my—you can't just leave him! He wanted my reactor!"

"Don't worry," said Natasha as she started to drag Loki's body like a sack of potatoes out of the lab, "you'll get visiting hours after the interrogation. The facility's in the city." She and Clint left.

Tony stared after them. "We have a facility in the city?"

From above, JARVIS answered, "It would appear so, sir."

Tony scrubbed a hand over his face.

He needed a drink.

Tony ended up sleeping for two days after The Loki Incident. Part of that was the shock of Loki coming to him and asking for assistance. The other part was the copious amounts of alcohol downed in the spirit of not trying to figure out what the fuck was going on.

Loki asking for help, and Clint shooting him down without Tony knowing that his security system was actually working was definitely more surprising than a unicorn.

And infinitely more stressful.

Two days later Tony found himself in the formerly super-secret SHIELD base below New York City, not too far away from Stark Tower in a part of the city that was Undisclosed. More specifically, Tony found himself in a room akin to a visiting room in a prison, except the agents wore suits and the prisoner was still in his Asgardian clothing and the prisoner was also an alien.

The first thing Tony said, after staring at said alien for a good amount of time, was, "You drugged him."

"Very good, Stark," Fury said. He didn't sound sincere at all.

Loki sat across from him, handcuffed and looking dead tired. Bandages peaked through the bits of his clothing that had been ruined, parts still stained dark. His eyes were glasses and it seemed like it took some effort to focus on Tony's face, which was interesting, because Loki was nothing if not focused. He could focus on someone like they were a specimen under a microscope. It was a bit like being stared at by Natasha, except Natasha wouldn't throw you out a window. Maybe. (Natasha was also in the room watching him but not in a microscopic sort of way.)

Tony wasn't sure what to say.

"We figured you could get him to talk," Coulson said, after a moment. "After all, he came to you. We listened to the recordings of your conversation with him. But we don't know why."

Tony turned back to Loki and asked, "Why?"

Loki didn't glare so much as attempt to glare and come across looking like he was squinting instead. SHIELD had the good drugs. Tony would have laughed if all the agents in the room weren't ready to kill him, or something. Fury certainly would. This was a Formal Interrogation.

Tony's question wasn't exactly the stuff of the CIA but still.

"Even were I not imprisoned," Loki said, with some effort, words a bit slurred and quiet, "do you really think I would tell you my plans?"

"Um…yes?"

Loki made a soft noise, a laugh without the effort.

"Look," Tony said, "if I were to build you weapons I'd need to cater them to what they'd be used against, because that's when weapons work best. I used to make weapons for a living, I would know. Hell, my suit adapts to each new enemy that I come across, that's why there are so many. You probably didn't need to know that, and now you do. Point is, I do need to know if you want my help."

"I'm not going to get it," Loki said, voice still strangely soft. "Your keepers would not let you."

"They aren't my keepers!" Tony said, uncomfortably aware of the agents with their guns and Fury's eyes on him.

Loki's lips twitched in what might have been a smile.

"Fuck you," Tony said. It wasn't professional, but he wasn't a SHIELD agent, and Loki deserved to have someone say that to him every five minutes if possible, anyway.

"If you insist."

"Enough," Natasha cut in, stepping forward. Until now she seemed to have been content to let Tony do as he would, but apparently he wasn't doing a good job at the whole interrogation thing. "Loki, tell us what you want."

"I want the arc reactor," Loki said. Then he laughed again. "Your face is precious."

Tony stole a sidelong look at Natasha—her eyebrows were raised in surprise and quite a bit of annoyance. She laughed, echoing Loki's laughter and said, "You must think we're stupid."

Loki blinked. "It goes without saying."

"We're not going to give you access to the arc reactor so you can, what? Kill us all?" She folded her arms across her chest and stared at him like a parent waiting for a child to admit a lie.

"That wasn't the initial plan, no," Loki murmured.

"What are the weapons for?" Tony asked.

"This has proved to me one thing," Loki said, louder, carefully enunciating every word, which really only had the effect of making him sound even more drugged, not that he appeared to notice. "SHIELD would not trust me with such weapons no matter what I used them for, even if I promised to not use them on you, and they would certainly never allow you to help me in building such weapons."

They all stared at him. It wasn't the most mind-blowing thing Loki had ever said, but it was true, and they all knew it. There was no trusting the God of Lies. Tony wondered why they'd even bothered to interrogate him in the first place.

"The way I see it," Loki continued, swaying in his chair a little, "is that you only have one option."

"Call Thor and get him to take you back to Asgard," Tony said.

"That would be it, yes," Loki said.

"We've been attempting to contact Thor," Coulson told them. "He isn't on Earth at the moment."

"Of course not," Loki said, tilting his head to look at the ceiling. Tony looked up, too, but nothing was there. "But that's fine. Thor already knows."

"What do you mean?" Natasha asked.

Loki grinned at the ceiling, which was disturbing because a) who does that? and b) Loki grinning was never a good sign, in Tony's brief but informative experience with him. "He sees all," was the answer.

This was followed by a few seconds of silence and the agents staring at each other, unsure of what to make of this revelation. The only thing they all knew, though no one wanted to admit it, was that this whole capturing Loki thing was turning out to be a spectacular failure.

Tony ordinarily would have thought it funny, because sometimes he thought SHIELD agents spent too much time up their own asses, but this time his life was kind of at risk, so he decided to not think about how funny it was until later.

"So we wait," Coulson said. He didn't sound like he thought waiting with a creature who thought himself a god and had destroyed half of Manhattan was a bad thing. But it was.

Loki suddenly unfolded himself from the chair, standing, swaying a bit, but that didn't matter because he stood at over six feet and cut an impressive figure in the room. Natasha had her gun pointed at him before he could draw breath to speak, as did the other agents in the room. Tony belatedly realized he would be caught in the cross-fire, probably, and stepped back towards Natasha.

None of this, however, stopped Loki from talking. Tony figured that nothing ever did.

Loki simply smiled and said, "I am not content to wait for Thor to drag me back to Asgard."

Tony wasn't sure where they would go from here. Loki couldn't teleport, but he could kill all of the agents (and himself) with a knife, or something equally gruesome. Tony didn't have his suit and wasn't much use. He was a meatbag that bled far too easily.

But he could talk.

And so could Loki.

"How did you escape, anyway?" he asked.

Loki grinned and did a weird sort of flick of the wrists. Something changed. Tony didn't know what, until Loki crossed the room in two steps and raised a knife to Tony's neck, while his other hand held Tony's arm in a vice-like grip.

And nobody shot him.

Nobody yelled.

Nobody did anything.

And all Tony could think was, _fuck you Loki and your goddamn magic. _

Not that it made any difference.

Loki smirked at him, infuriatingly, and said, "So, your decision."

"It isn't really a decision if you're threatening me with a knife, now, is it?"

"It is," Loki said. "It is not my fault if the decision you make ends poorly for you."

Well, that was one argument. Tony felt the cold knife against his neck and asked, "What did you do to them?"

"I froze them," Loki said, "paralyzed them. They can see us and hear us but they can do nothing about it. You're quite alone, I'm afraid." He was still grinning.

Tony did notice, with some satisfaction, that Loki's eyes were still glassy, and he still swayed slightly, though Tony's body was now making a rather fantastic support. So that hadn't been an act. Tony wondered if he could off-balance Loki, but he had no plan for what to do after that. Likely Loki would kill everyone in the room and then him, and then Tony would feel like an asshole.

Except he'd be dead, so he wouldn't feel like anything.

But if there was an afterlife, he was sure he'd feel like an asshole for eternity.

Instead he stared back at Loki. "What are the weapons for?"

"Asgard," Loki said.

Something about that didn't sit right. "Liar."

"Am I?" Loki allowed the knife to prick Tony's skin, just a little. It still freaked Tony out and he didn't dare move. "Asgard has the tesseract, the ultimate source of power in this universe. I want it."

"The arc reactor is a replacement," Tony said.

Loki laughed. "Is that what you think, mortal? That such a thing could replace the powerful of the tesseract? It is powerful, but not powerful enough to destroy the universe. Few things are, but the tesseract is one of them and I need it."

"So." Tony took a deep breath, his brain working hard to figure out how to best play his cards. "You want an arc reactor weapon, or weapons, so that you can break into Asgard and get the tesseract, and then you'll make tesseract weapons like the ones Hydra made, with which you will…"

"What do you think, Stark?"

"Well, one would assume you would attack Asgard," Tony said, "but that's not it, is it? You wanted the arc reactor weapons to get the tesseract but you don't want to take over. You're looking for something else."

Loki's eyes narrowed. "Is that so? Did you know, Stark, that I was once Asgard's king?"

"Who did you kill?" Tony regretted this instantly, as the knife flicked Tony's cheek, leaving a stinging gash. Blood started to trickle, but Tony couldn't reach up to wipe it away; the knife had already moved back down to his neck.

"No one," Loki hissed. "I was the rightful king. Thor was banished, my father ill. My mother ceded the throne to me, and I was betrayed by those who could not bear to bow down to a monster."

"Your words," Tony said, "not mine."

Loki tightened his grip on Tony's arm. "I knew you would come at the call of these pathetic humans," he murmured, leaning close. "I am giving time. One week. Be grateful that it is not less." He let go and stepped back.

"One week to decide?"

"One week to create an arc reactor weapon," Loki corrected, and then he vanished.

Several clicks filled the room, along with a few yells, and then one, "Son of a bitch!" Tony turned from the spot Loki had been standing to see several stunned and furious SHIELD agents staring back at him. Natasha threw her gun on the floor, where it landed in a puddle of water.

It took a moment to process. Loki had filled all of their guns with water.

"So," Tony said to the assembled, "what now?"

In the end, they decided that the best thing for Tony to do would be to, in Fury's words, "Just build the goddamn thing and get him off this planet."

Which was exactly what Tony did.

He spent a week in his lab, which wasn't abnormal, and the other Avengers came to visit him. One time he asked Clint if he should try and rig the weapon to kill Loki, or malfunction, or something but Clint just laughed.

"From our point of view, Thor and all the other people up there just allowed him to escape," he said, "so, you know, if he threatens us and Thor's not around to help then we have no choice."

"You should be an ethics professor or something, that was deep shit," Tony said, welding some steel together.

"Fuck you," Clint snapped. He picked up a stray bullet and examined it. "You think Thor knows?"

"He has to, doesn't he?"

"Does he?"

Tony sighed. "Loki said Thor would know because SHIELD had been asking for him, even if he wasn't on Earth."

"Loki is also a liar, in case you forgot," Clint pointed out. "For all we know he turned Thor into a cheesecake and ate him."

"Loki's not a cannibal." Tony stopped welding and pushed his goggles up to examine his work.

"Is it cannibalism if Loki's adopted?" Clint asked.

Tony turned to stare at him. "Yes."

Clint rolled his eyes and left.

It wasn't until later that Tony remembered being told that Loki was a different species. Somehow, he though Loki eating Thor would still qualify as cannibalism, even if Thor were a cheesecake.

Somehow, he didn't think this was Loki's master plan.

Loki showed up at the end of the week while Tony was having a slice of pizza and whiskey, a reward for a job well done.

Even if said job might destroy the universe, but he didn't really think about it too hard.

At least he wasn't bleeding out on SHIELD's floor.

Loki appeared sitting on the desk in front of him, smirking. "I assume you've delivered on your side of the bargain."

"I don't remember a bargain," Tony said. "What was your side again?"

"Not killing you." Oh. That.

"And how did you escape?" Tony asked. "You just up and vanished even though I'm pretty sure SHIELD's barriers to teleportation actually worked. They worked on the Doombots."

"Doom is an idiot," Loki said. "They didn't work on me."

"Oh." Tony drained the last of his glass of whiskey. He wasn't sober enough for this, but he didn't care. Trying to figure out Loki was like trying to solve an incredibly complicated calculus problem while banging your head into a concrete wall repeatedly. While drunk.

"The weapon, Stark." Loki stood up.

Tony stood up, too, and was grateful he didn't fall over because the whiskey was making him a little dizzy. "Somebody's impatient."

"There are pressing matters to attend to," Loki said.

"Yeah, I know, killing Thor and Asgard and all that. Hard work." Tony walked over to the table upon which the weapon lay. It looked rather like Loki's old spear, was modeled after it, in fact, with a small arc reactor glowing in the center of the blade. Tony figured the blade was a nice touch. Loki would like it.

He handed the spear over and Loki took it in his hands, examining it. Then he smiled. "My thanks, Stark, for your services."

"Any time," Tony said, rolling his eyes. "Now, are you gonna actually tell me what that thing is—motherfucker." Loki had disappeared halfway through his sentence.

Somehow, Tony had expected something less…anticlimactic. At least involving one explosion and several knives and an irate Clint Barton and, if they were lucky, the Hulk. But that whole process had gone deceptively smoothly.

"JARVIS," Tony said, "please tell Fury and the team that Operation Arm Insanity-God was a success."

"Yes, sir," JARVIS said.

Tony sighed and fell back into his chair. "And now we wait."

Tony wanted—no, he expected—to hear something about Loki within the next few days, if only because arming Loki with an extremely powerful and dangerous weapon seemed like the sort of thing that would result in noticeable chaos.

But everything was quiet.

For weeks.

Thor didn't even show up, and Tony didn't know whether to be insulted that he'd ignored SHIELD's messages or concerned that he didn't get them and was now dead. He decided to be insulted because Thor ignoring him was infinitely better than Thor being dead.

He didn't even know if Thor could die, being a god and all, but he probably could. He certainly didn't want to find out, no matter how interesting a science experiment it would make.

SHIELD was on edge. The other teammates were on edge, too, if the number of walls Clint had shot arrows at was anything to go by. Natasha went off on some secret spy mission that was guaranteed to be distracted. Steve used up 5% more punching bags than normal, and Bruce had taken up meditation.

Fury didn't even bother talking to Tony and Coulson was nowhere to be seen. Which was fine. Tony didn't do well with SHIELD agents.

Pepper, who had been on a business trip in Switzerland for a few weeks, had come back to the tense atmosphere in Stark Tower and had asked what was wrong. When Tony told her she looked concerned but said, "If nothing comes of it then don't worry."

"That's the part that's worrying me," Tony said. "Something should've happened!"

"Maybe it doesn't have to do with you," Pepper suggested.

Tony rolled his eyes. There was no way this wouldn't come back to bite him in the ass.

But a month went by, and all was quiet, and then Thor turned up in the middle of New Mexico. They knew this because satellites picked him up, and SHIELD gave him a call, but he disappeared for a few hours with Jane (which prompted a lot of jokes from Tony and Clint) before deciding to talk with SHIELD via videoconference.

The Avengers had gathered for the three-way call in the conference room, where Tony turned on the camera so they could all see each other. Thor looked no worse for wear (though he did have what Tony liked to call sex hair, but that was different and he decided that from the look on Fury's face, he shouldn't mention it.) When he spoke, he sounded like his usual happy self.

"My friends, I am sorry I have kept you waiting for so long," he said, "but truly, I was not aware that you have been trying to reach me for some time. I only knew yesterday."

"Wait, what?" This from Natasha. "Loki said you'd know."

"I should have," Thor admitted, looking uncomfortable, "and had I known he was causing you trouble I would have come immediately."

"Didn't you know he escaped?" Tony asked.

"Yes," Thor said, "but we knew not where to. We didn't think he would go back to his last place of defeat."

"Well, he did," Tony said. There was an awkward silence.

Fury broke it by asking, "So what happened to Loki then?"

"He came to Asgard," Thor said, "and stole the tesseract, and we tried to stop him. We chased him through the realms until he lost us, and we could no longer find him. We returned, defeated, and set about making plans for Loki's capture, and for possible war. It was only recently that we found out that he had been here, with you, and had threatened your lives."

"Yeah, he threatened them alright," Tony said. "How did you find out?"

"Loki had used a most peculiar weapon," Thor explained. "It was like his spear that he used when battling with us the first time he came, but the power source was different. He left it in his haste to flee, and after much examination we found the materials the spear was made of to be from Midgard."

"Yeah, that would be me," Tony said. "He kind of gave me a make-this-or-die ultimatum."

Thor nodded, as though this made everything clear. "We are still searching for him, and I hope we can find him before he causes too much damage."

"That would be nice," Clint muttered, shaking his head.

"So you head back now?" Natasha asked.

"Yes," Thor said, "there are some matters I would like to take care of back home, but first I wished to talk to you and see Jane."

"Of course you did," Clint said, winking. Natasha elbowed him.

"I'm sure you are safe," Thor added, but he still looked worried.

"I hope you're right," Fury said.

For the sake of his life and probably his sanity, Tony hoped Thor was right, too.

After the meeting, it took two days, twenty three hours, and fifteen minutes for things to come back and bite Tony in the ass.

He was in bed for once, reading e-mails on his Starkpad and Pepper had suggested he catch up with (suggested, in this case, meaning threatened.) He heard a thud and didn't think much of it until he heard a second thud, and realized that this was more than just his tower settling, or some bullshit explanation like that which realisitically wouldn't happen because his tower was perfect.

He looked up and saw Loki, sprawled on the floor and struggling to get up again. Tony stared. Loki wore his armor, without the helmet, but it was ripped in certain places, scratched, dented, and otherwise looking used and misused in various ways. Loki didn't look much better; he managed only to raise himself to his knees (and how ironic, Loki kneeling to Tony, of all people) and his face was too pale, there were bruises on his cheeks and he looked exhausted beyond all measure.

"You look like death warmed up," Tony commented once Loki had settled into his position and didn't make any moves to get up again.

Loki watched him, expression carefully blank, though he looked like he was grimacing. At least he wasn't angry. And he had no weapons, and that was something.

"So," Tony said, as the silence stretched on, "what are you doing here?"

"You've been wondering, have you not, what would happen," Loki said, voice hoarse. He swallowed. "I can tell. It killed you not to know."

"So what?" Tony straightened, allowing the last vestiges of relaxation to fall away from him. The hand farthest away from Loki reached beneath his pillow and fumbled for a bracelet, which he snapped on. He didn't want to need it, but he wasn't an idiot. "Gonna kill me now?"

"I merely would like to ask another favor," Loki said. He sounded as if the words were forcing themselves out and Tony didn't blame him.

"Fuck," Tony murmured, looking at Loki's face. He couldn't see a lie there. Or an intent to murder. "You're serious."

"I would ask," Loki said, "for a place to rest, for one night. And," he licked his lips, "for a drink."

"Water?" Tony asked, already rising from the bed.

Loki laughed, softly. "Something a bit stronger."

Tony felt less guilty about being the kind of person who kept scotch (among other things) in his room, because it made this whole situation ten times more convenient. He poured two glasses, one for Loki and one for himself because he wasn't about to sit here and watch Loki drink by himself. He handed one of the glasses to Loki, who downed it in one go. Tony decided not to do that, given who he was with.

"What did you do?" he asked instead.

"I needed to eliminate a threat," Loki said, "and exact revenge."

"And did you succeed?" Tony asked.

Loki bared his teeth in something too feral to be called a grin, but which had all the marks of savage satisfaction. "Yes."

Tony shivered. But Thor was alive, and Asgard apparently was intact and no one knew where Loki was, and the Earth still existed, so clearly they'd all dodged a major bullet. But someone hadn't. "Should I know who?"

"Stark, you amuse me." Loki put the glass down on Tony's bedside table and grabbed a pillow off the bed. He placed it on the ground before gingerly lowering himself into a lying down position.

Tony fleetingly thought about offering him the bed but this was drowned out by much stronger feelings of not-gonna-happen. "Well," he said, "goodnight I guess."

"Sleep well," Loki murmured, closing his eyes, and damn, he made that sound ten times creepier than it needed to.

Tony didn't anticipate sleeping, but he turned off the lights anyway and typed a message on his Starkpad to JARVIS that read, "If he tries to kill me, alert the others. And try not to let him kill me."

JARVIS wrote back, "Yes, sir." Which wasn't as encouraging as it should have been.

Somehow, he still managed to fall asleep.

And when he woke up, Loki was gone. And it was nearly afternoon. And JARVIS' good morning message was, "Sir, I didn't want to wake you, but your guest has taken his leave. You have not been harmed, nor has anyone else in the tower."

"Thanks," Tony said, running a hand through his hair. "Why didn't I get the team to kick his ass last night?"

"The logic of your choices eludes even me at times, sir," JARVIS said. He almost sounded apologetic.

"That makes me feel better," Tony said, climbing out of bed. The pillow was still on the floor. Along with a single black feather. Tony bent down and picked it up, turning it over in his hands. "Weird fucker," he muttered.

But he didn't stop thinking about it.


	3. Game of Chance

In all of his years of living, never had Tony expected to wish for alien intervention. But that's what was happening now. He wanted Thor to find Loki, and he wanted Loki to be in a jail on Asgard, and he wanted to never have to deal with Loki again. Tony Stark often got what he wanted.

But he wasn't sure this was what he actually wanted, and that bothered him. So he decided not to think about it. He also decided not to think about the black feather Loki had left behind. Certainly there was nothing special about a feather. It looked like it belonged to a crow, or a raven.

He definitely didn't have JARVIS analyze it, and he definitely wasn't disappointed that for all intents and purposes, it was a normal feather. At least this meant that Loki probably wasn't coming back and that was fine by him. So he told himself.

No one else mentioned it. Clint, because he probably wanted to forget Loki more than any of them. And the rest because, well, no one really wanted to let on how worried they were about Loki being on the loose with the Tesseract. Madness lay down that road.

In fact, Tony was thinking, maybe life could go back to normal. And three weeks after Thor's last visit he went to sleep thinking that when he woke up, everything would be pleasantly normal.

Which of course, it wasn't.

* * *

When something fell from the sky in the middle of upstate New York, SHIELD didn't alert Tony Stark. They alerted other SHIELD agents and Natasha and Clint, because Natasha and Clint could get a job done quietly and they had experience with things falling from the sky.

The thing that had fallen from the sky was Loki. It really didn't surprise anyone, though more than half the agents present had been hoping it would be Thor.

But life was never that kind.

Loki fought, and lost, and ended up handcuffed and drugged and headed to the SHIELD facility in New York City with new and improved magic blocks that everyone hoped would, if not completely stop his magic, would at least stop him from teleporting out of his prison.

They hoped the drugs would also help.

And then the interrogation began. Standard questions, like "Where is the Tesseract?" "How did you escape?" "What did you use the Tesseract for?" "Where is Thor?"

None of which Loki answered. He remained silent, face white and eyes glaring. He was furious. But trapped.

Clint said, "Somehow I don't think just asking him questions will make him talk."

"Somehow I don't think pain will, either," Natasha said.

Loki glared at the both of them.

Clint glared back. Natasha remained impassive.

"How does it feel to be on the other side?" Clint asked.

Loki didn't say anything, not that they expected him to.

"Fine," Clint said. "If you want to play hard to get, we'll play hard to get."

"Welcome to the game, Agent Barton," Loki said.

Clint turned on heel and walked out of the room. Shortly thereafter the experiments started.

* * *

Tony didn't find out about Loki until a week later.

Natasha came into the kitchen, where he was making himself waffles, looking exhausted and a little bit frustrated, which was a little bit scary, because Natasha hardly ever looked like anything. If she was looking frustrated, it was because someone somewhere was being really fucking frustrating. Like, astronomical levels of frustrating.

Tony wasn't looking forward to this conversation.

"Tony," Natasha said. "We need to talk."

"Is our relationship on the rocks again?" Tony asked.

"Tony." Well, that wasn't good.

Tony turned away from his waffles. Natasha looked stern, and stern was never good. "What?" he asked, exasperated.

"Were you compromised by Loki?" she asked.

Tony stared at her. "What?"

"He came to you for help," Natasha said, "and you made him a weapon. And he came to you again a few weeks later. Don't think we don't know about it. We found out. JARVIS managed to tell us two days later."

"The fiend!" Tony cried.

From above, JARVIS said, "I felt it was prudent, sir."

"Prudent my ass," Tony snapped. "I didn't know you had opinions on my guests."

"Look," Natasha said, "keeping Loki here for the night without telling any of us wasn't your smartest idea. Which makes me think that you trusted him. Which makes me think that he messed with you."

"I'm not mind controlled, if that's what you're asking," Tony said.

"I'm not. There are other ways of being compromised." The way she said that made shivers run down Tony's spine.

"Loki's an interesting character," Tony told her. "He's more interesting than Doom. I was curious, I guess? He came to me for help. Who does that? He came to me for help and I'm a foolish mortal."

"You're useful," Natasha said. "Loki has…flexible morals at best. I'm not surprised. If he could use you, he would. But I hope you know that's all he was doing. Using you."

"Yeah, I know that," said Tony, although hearing it like that sounded kind of harsh. Like Tony was just a tool. And sure, that's what it was, when Tony looked back at it. And he'd only agreed because his life was in danger. And Loki, well, he certainly wasn't going to be anyone's friend anytime soon. But it did kind of hurt. Even if Tony had been analyzing Loki like he was an intriguing new piece of software.

"Good," Natasha said. "I wasn't entirely sure you did."

"I'm not an idiot," Tony snapped. "I know who Loki is."

"Interesting," Natasha said, raising her eyebrows. "Because we don't. We don't know what he needed the Tesseract for. But he told you, didn't he. That night he came."

Tony began to realize why, exactly, they were having this conversation. It was about more than Tony's mental well-being, or even about the well-being of the Avengers as a team.

"He didn't," Tony said. "I mean, he kind of insinuated that he used it against someone, but I don't know who. He got revenge. It wasn't on Asgard. Thor told us that. Then he left."

"He told you more than he's told anyone else," Natasha said. "Why is that?"

"I don't know. Exchange of information. A sort of messed up thank you? He didn't exactly tell me why he told me."

Natasha made a humming noise and considered him for a moment. Tony felt increasingly uncomfortable.

Finally she said, "We need you to talk to him. Meet me at SHIELD headquarters in two hours."

"Okay," Tony said. She walked away. It took about five more minutes for his brain to catch up. "Wait, what?"

That meant that SHIELD had Loki. That meant that SHIELD were keeping secrets from him.

Again.

It was going to be a long day.

* * *

Tony spent the two hours until his meeting pestering the rest of the Avengers (or at least the ones he could find) about Loki. Bruce and Steve were just as surprised as he was to learn that SHIELD had Loki and that Loki was, in fact, not in some remote corner of space.

"It seems like something we should be concerned about," Steve said, "but they probably have their reasons."

"Yeah," Tony said, "their reasons are being dicks."

"Not exactly what I had in mind," said Steve. They left it at that.

If it were possible, Loki had even more security than the last time he'd been with SHIELD. Natasha and Clint met him outside of the holding cell.

"So when do I go inside?" he asked.

"Never," Clint said. "We're accompanying you to an interrogation room. Loki's there now."

"So he's not in there," Tony said, peering at the steel door.

"Nope," Clint said.

"I hope you've been nice, at least," Tony said. He was mostly serious. He had opinions about torture and SHIELD's interrogation methods and none of them were positive.

"Nope," Clint said.

Natasha had a vacant look on her face. Tony assumed someone was talking to her via earpiece. Sure enough, a moment later she said, "Follow me."

They followed her down a few corridors that all looked the same. Tony wondered if SHIELD needed a new interior designer. He assumed that Fury would say no, given that his goal was to take the fun out of everything.

The interrogation room had a sign that said "Interrogation Room" on it, which almost made Tony laugh. But everyone else looked too serious, so he decided for once in his life to keep quiet.

Natasha opened the door with a high-tech keycard thing.

It actually looked kind of like a normal room, except the walls were reinforced steel and the prisoner was chained to a chair. Loki was drugged, no surprise, dressed in gray loose clothing, and there were bandages on his arms. Tony frowned at this. There was also a table in front of him and a chair opposite. Tony expected he was meant to sit in the chair.

"Nice place," he said.

Fury was standing on one side of Loki, Coulson on the other. Both had guns. There were several SHIELD agents behind them. Tony imagined Loki was proud that he still caused so much fear in all of them.

Tony had to admit, he would be afraid if he were them. Loki had a thing about revenge and he wasn't afraid to use it.

"Sit down," Natasha said, closing the door behind him. And locking it.

This was going to be fun.

Tony took a seat across from Loki, who looked at him impassively.

Tony smiled. "Hey, how're you?"

"They think I trust you," Loki told him.

"And do you?" Tony asked. When Loki didn't answer, he added, "So, how long till Thor gets here?"

"I'm sure the Allfather is content to leave you in charge of my punishment for the time being," Loki said. "He has far more important matters to attend."

"You think he doesn't care about you?" Tony asked.

"Did I say that?"

A loaded question. Tony mentally took a step back. This was Loki. He was already treading on thin ice. That was Loki's default setting.

"Why'd you come back?" Tony asked. "Didn't you know you'd get captured by SHIELD?"

"I hoped to hide here," Loki said.

"Liar." This from Clint.

"Perhaps." Loki smiled. "Would you believe the truth?"

"What's the truth?" Tony asked.

"You wouldn't like it."

"Try me."

"I ran out of magic after trying to rid myself of the Tesseract."

"That's bullshit," Clint said. "You wouldn't get rid of the Tesseract even if your life depended on it."

"I didn't mean to come here," Loki said. "And you know nothing of what I would give up for my life. But no, that's not why I got rid of it."

"I have a hard time believing that," Natasha said. "You still have it."

"Believe what you will," Loki said. Tony noticed, now, that his words were slurred, that he was making an extra effort to speak clearly. "I knew you wouldn't like the truth."

Tony wasn't sure what to think. He didn't know if it was the truth or a lie or a half-truth. Loki was really good at half-truths.

Instead he thought of something else. "What's with the feather?" he asked. He produced the black feather from his pocket and placed it on the table.

"He gave that to you?" Clint asked sharply.

"Yeah," Tony said, "but according to JARVIS it's an ordinary feather so I didn't think anything of it. I thought it was just some sort of mind game to freak me out."

"What is it?" Fury asked from behind Loki.

"It's a feather," Loki said.

"What kind of feather?" Coulson prompted. Loki grimaced. That probably wasn't good, that Coulson made Loki react like that. Tony wondered how their previous interactions had gone. Coulson had a lot to be angry at Loki for.

"A raven's father," Loki replied.

"Yeah, I get that," Tony said, "but why? Last time you left something it was magical."

"A parting gift," Loki said. "Do you know about Odin's ravens?"

"Memory and thought," Natasha spoke up. "In the myths."

"Memory," Loki repeated.

"But it was just an ordinary feather," Tony said, confused. "JARVIS checked. It wasn't a super godly raven feather."

"No, it wasn't," Loki agreed. "It was an ordinary feather from an extraordinary raven. I wanted you to remember."

"Why?"

Loki didn't answer this question. He just stared ahead, expression going blank.

"What's your game?" Tony asked. "Your plan? Seriously, you've gotta have one. No one here is gonna believe for a second that you're here on vacation or just passing through."

"What use are plans, Stark, when I have you mortals to fabricate them for me?" Loki smirked. "Sometimes the best plan is not a plan at all."

"Deliberately not having a plan is still a plan," Natasha said.

"I'm sure it is," Loki said. He blinked, slowly. He looked tired.

Tony leaned forward. "What did you do?"

"I told you, Stark," Loki said. "Revenge."

"On what?" Tony asked. "If it wasn't us and it wasn't Thor, who was it?"

Loki laughed. Coulson checked his watch, then casually went over to one of the other agents, who was holding a box. He opened the box and messed around with whatever was inside. He came back holding a syringe full of clear liquid.

Loki watched Tony watch Coulson and he stiffened, apparently understanding what was going on. Tony watched as Coulson, without preamble, slid the needle into the vein in Loki's neck. Loki flinched. Coulson pushed the liquid into his body and Loki grimaced.

"What is that?" Tony asked.

"You wouldn't like my truths," Loki said, an echo of earlier, but now he sounded pained, less in control.

"Something to keep him in line," Coulson said. "Were he clear headed he would escape."

"How smart," Loki hissed. "You've figured out that I'm capable of intelligent thought. You think your drugs can hold me—"

"We don't think," Natasha said, "we know. It's working."

Loki clenched his hands into fists. "You will suffer for this," he snarled.

"Does it hurt?" Clint asked.

Loki clenched his jaw and didn't respond.

"Stark," Fury said, "we'll continue this tomorrow. I'm afraid it's time to take a break."

Tony was about to say that this sounded like a good plan, and then Loki started screaming.

* * *

They adjourned to a meeting room, or rather, Natasha and Clint forced Tony into a meeting room while everyone else took care of Loki. But Tony wasn't planning on going quietly.

"What was that?" he yelled, voice echoing in the large room. Clint and Natasha didn't seem at all phased by his anger. "What did you do to him?"

"Calm down," Natasha said, voice bordering on serene, which pissed Tony off even more.

"I can't calm down, he was fucking screaming," Tony snapped. "What did you do?"

"He's a prisoner," Clint said. "Come on, Tony."

"It's a drug," added Natasha, "that causes pain and hallucinations."

"You're trying to break him," Tony said.

"Yes." Natasha didn't look away. "That a problem?"

"I don't…torture isn't…" Tony was at a loss.

"We do what we have to," Natasha said. "Loki's a criminal. He killed lots of people. He has information we need."

"But we're not criminals," Tony insisted. "We take the moral high ground. Or we're supposed to. We don't just do something just as bad. We're the good guys."

"That's why we make the tough decisions," Natasha said, "not you."

There was something almost like a challenge in her voice. "I'm not saying it's easy," Tony said, "but, I mean, aren't there other ways? Look, I can probably get him to talk. Maybe if we give a little…"

"We gave last time and it didn't work," Natasha said.

"Thor's going to kill you," Tony pointed out.

Clint shook his head. "Loki said they've stopped caring."

"Loki lies." But part of Tony wondered if it was true. It was so hard to tell, with Loki, what was true and what was a lie. Yet Thor hadn't come calling. And that was a sign.

Natasha nodded.

"It's a catch-22," Tony added. "If Loki lies you punish him. If he tells you the truth you won't believe him, so you punish him until it's confirmed."

"He deserves it," Clint said. "He's the one who lies all the time."

"I'm not saying it isn't his fault," Tony said, suddenly feeling defensive, "but I'm just saying we don't know. We don't know anything. Except that he had the Tesseract and he didn't attack Asgard, or Earth."

"Yet," Natasha pointed out. "He could have been planning it."

That was true. Tony hadn't thought about it. But he also wasn't convinced that Loki was, in fact, planning on attacking either Earth or Asgard. It didn't seem to be his focus. His focus was something that they didn't know about. Whatever he'd taken revenge on, whatever he'd done with the Tesseract, was beyond the issues he had with his former home and the place he tried to take over.

Clint and Natasha were still watching him. Suddenly, Tony felt defeated. Useless. "What now?"

"We'll bring you back," Natasha said. "He talks more to you than to anyone else."

"I helped him that one time," Tony said. "I'm not surprised. I'm useful."

"You are," Natasha agreed. "Just don't stay that way. We don't need Loki using you."

Tony nodded and after an awkward pause in which all three stared at each other, he moved forward and walked past the two SHIELD agents, and out the door.

It had been a long day. Tony had no idea what was going on. And he wanted to get that screaming out of his head as quickly as possible.

* * *

The next day Tony woke up to JARVIS telling him that Thor was in the kitchen, wanting to talk.

Thor simultaneously happened to be the person Tony wanted to talk to the most and the person Tony wanted to talk to the least. Maybe Thor could stop the torture. But Tony also felt guilty about the torture. What if Thor blamed him? What if Thor wasn't here to take Loki home?

Thor had made himself a waffle and was eating it when Tony walked in. Tony didn't remember teaching Thor how to make waffles, but he was pleased that the kitchen hadn't burnt down all the same.

Thor looked up and greeted him with a solemn nod. "Tony."

"Thor." Tony took a seat across from him. "Please tell me you're here to take Loki back to Asgard."

"No." Thor looked genuinely upset about this. "My father would like his punishment to be in the hands of those he's wronged, and you are included in that number. As much as I disapprove of their methods, I must allow it."

"For how long?" Tony asked. "Or is it forever? Does he go back to Asgard afterwards?"

"I know his time would be reduced if he relinquished the Tesseract," Thor said. "I will talk to him today. Natasha has asked me to bring you as well. Apparently Loki talks more in your presence." And now Thor looked interested, as though Tony had a secret that he needed to figure out.

And Tony had no idea what that secret was. "I'll come," he said, "but there's no guarantees. Loki pretty much hates everyone."

"That is no surprise," Thor said, taking a final bite of waffle. "But we need to talk."

"You do," Tony said. After all, most of what Loki did was to spite Thor. At least half of it. They had a very unhealthy relationship that tended to end in murder attempts and world domination. "You really do."

Thor nodded. "I hope to be the brothers we once were."

"If that doesn't involve Loki taking over the Earth, I'm all for it."

* * *

As it turned out, and to nobody's surprise, Loki didn't want to see Thor.

The second they entered the cell, Loki's eyes widened and then he yelled, "Get him out of here!"

"Brother, I merely—"

"I am _not_ your brother, you idiot. I never was!" Loki's voice was hoarse, and yet he still managed to drown out Thor's voice.

He also looked like hell, and the drugs had really screwed him over, along with whatever else SHIELD had done, but he still managed to come to life with anger upon seeing Thor.

"I wish to talk," Thor said, taking the seat across from him. Tony decided to stand awkwardly to the side because, well, there was only one chair in the room. Which was bad planning. Then again, Loki wasn't exactly a guy with a lot of friends.

"I don't wish to talk," Loki snarled. "You bring me nothing but pain. You've left me here with these mortals to suffer and you _never listened to a single thing I've said in my entire life._" Now his voice was painfully shrill. Tony cringed.

"That isn't true," Thor said. But his voice was quiet. Like he thought it might be true.

"Yes it is. Do you know what I saw in the abyss?"

A complete change of subject. Thor looked confused. "Loki—"

"I saw monsters," Loki hissed, "and I was among them, a monster myself, because monsters were the only thing there, and they hurt and they tore and screamed and destroyed and I survived because I was one of them and the man you see before you never belonged to you. He is a monster, stolen from a temple as a child when he deserved to die—"

"No!" Thor cried. "Stop speaking these lies. You deserve to live," and this gained him some incredulous looks from some of the agents, but, "and you are my brother."

"I saw you," Loki continued, softer, "and every time you were my end."

Thor stared at him. "That isn't true, Loki."

"Isn't it?"

A heavy silence hung in the air.

Tony concluded that this impromptu therapy session wasn't going well.

"This is my life," Loki said, after a moment. "I am the monster that everyone fears. I have known all my life and have seen it confirmed time and again. When you call me brother you lie. You could not possibly love a monster."

Silence, again. Then,

"That's not true," Thor said. "You merely lie to yourself."

"You lie to me!" Loki cried. He strained against his chains, as though he wanted to strangle Thor. But the chains held strong and Loki sagged against his chair and closed his eyes, exhausted.

"Loki," Thor said, "please, tell me what's happened."

"It won't change anything," Loki said.

"I can't fix what I don't know is broken," Thor said. "What went wrong?"

Loki laughed. "Everything."

"Not everything," Thor insisted. "I still love you. You are still my brother."

"Even worse," Loki said, tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling. "You can't see it." A tear ran down his cheek, which disturbed Tony because Loki didn't seem conscious that he was crying.

Truthfully, the whole conversation was becoming a bit too much. The self-hatred in the room was reaching astronomical proportions, and Thor's presence wasn't helping matters. Thor was, certainly, a good older brother, but not perfect. But perhaps good enough in the eyes of others that Loki had fell into his shadow.

Tony certainly knew the feeling.

"Show me," Thor said.

"I did," Loki murmured, "but you refused. And I can't, now, show you the monster, because they've taken me away from myself and poured chemicals in my veins, and I don't know which me is me. Am I this Loki or the other?"

"I don't know what you mean," Thor said.

Loki lowered his gaze to Thor and narrowed his eyes. "Don't you?"

"Alright," Tony interrupted, "I think we all know where this is headed."

Thor and Loki both turned to him. Natasha made a warning noise. Fury's eye was twitching.

"We can talk therapy and feelings all day," Tony said, "but that's probably for another time and place when we're not in a prison and Loki isn't drugged. Family talks are best done sober! I would know." An uncomfortable pause followed this, and Tony decided to soldier on. "The point is, none of us know what Loki's done with the Tesseract, or what's actually going on here, how he got to Earth, whether we're all in danger of being killed or ruled by some weird alien or something. For all I know Loki could be planning on blowing up SHIELD within the next five minutes. Let's face it, we're at a horrible disadvantage. And we're sitting here talking about family relationships."

"I find this an important topic of discussion," Thor said.

"And it is," Tony said, "but not right now. I know you wanted to talk to him. To be honest I was hoping it would last, like, five minutes. But this has gone on long enough. Coulson's falling asleep."

Coulson raised an eyebrow at Tony because he actually hadn't been falling asleep, but all he said was, "I believe Mr. Stark as a point."

"Yes he does," Tony said with a grin. "So, Loki, Tesseract. Go."

Loki was silent. Not surprising, given the outburst of feelings he'd just sent in Thor's general direction a few minutes ago. He actually looked as if he was trying very hard not to yell or scream.

"Your move, Stark," Fury said.

Tony sighed. "Fine, fuck it. I think this session's already gone to shit, personally. Can we try again tomorrow?"

"That seems to be a sound idea," Coulson said.

"Good," said Tony. "Let me know when I can come by."

And then he left.

But he had no intention of waiting until tomorrow.

* * *

The great thing about being Tony Stark was that Tony Stark could hack into basically anything and get away with it. He could cover his tracks no matter where he went, or how deep. And he had an awesome AI to help him.

Within half an hour of getting back to his tower Tony locked himself in his work room and had JARVIS start hacking into SHIELD's computer system, which in turn hacked into their security system in their New York City base, which in turn lead him to Loki's cell.

Loki's cell had some fancy tech that stopped him from teleporting out. Tony frowned, wrote in a few lines of code, and turned that tech off.

As far as bad ideas went, this was probably one of Tony's worst. But he didn't approve of SHIELD's methods, and he knew that Loki wouldn't tell anyone anything as long as he was locked up. They were fighting a useless battle.

A few moments later, Loki disappeared from his cell.

Tony felt a small spark of satisfaction. Disrupting SHIELD's sense of superiority had been accomplished. Stopping them from torturing a prisoner was also a plus. Not to mention that they couldn't prove that Tony had done it. They probably wouldn't even get so far as to suspect him. They'd think that their tech failed, and that would be satisfying.

Of course, there were no guarantees that Loki wouldn't kill them all while they slept, or that he wouldn't burn SHIELD to the ground. Alternatively, they might never see him again. Tony wasn't actually sure which one was worse.

Part of him, the genius part that sometimes bordered on sociopathic in its quest for knowledge, held the opinion that Loki not coming back would be worse, because then they wouldn't _know_. And Tony wanted to know.

No sooner had he banished the thought from his head than the air around him became charged with something, and a voice behind him said, "Thank you."

Tony whipped around. Loki stood there, now in his own leathers, in the middle of the work room, still looking a bit off but otherwise whole.

"You're welcome?"

Loki took a step closer. "Stop me," he said.

"From what?"

"From killing your friends, your SHIELD agents, from burning everything," Loki hissed. "They deserve it."

"Ah." Tony thought for a moment. "So you're proving that you're a monster, then."

"I have nothing to prove," Loki said. "I am a monster."

"I mean, revenge is nice and all, but have you heard of mercy? Forgiveness?"

"They don't deserve it," Loki snapped.

"It's not about what they deserve," Tony said. "Besides, why come to me to ask me to stop you? If you really wanted to do it you would've done it already. Why ask me? What do I matter?"

Loki seemed disturbed by this as he studied Tony. "What do you matter, indeed."

"But if I do matter, if it counts," Tony said, "I'd rather you didn't do that. Leave them alone. They do some things but I mean, you are dangerous. You had to have seen it coming."

"It is not the worst thing that has happened," Loki said. "The question is, do you matter?"

"Do I?" Tony asked.

Loki gave him a long look. "What I said," he said, "and perhaps what I say now will mean nothing later. The drugs still have their influence over me. Forget everything."

"Do you really believe all that stuff you said to Thor?" Tony asked.

Loki suddenly appeared much closer to Tony, grabbing his shirt. "Everything," he snarled.

Tony wanted to ask whether Loki meant to repeat "forget everything" or that he believed everything, but Loki suddenly let him go and he had to concentrate on not falling. By the time he regained his balance, Loki was several paces away facing in the opposite direction.

"If I mean anything I say," he said, sounding distant, "then I mean this. I will not harm your Avengers, nor SHIELD," and these names he said with disgust, "but should they come after me again, I will burn them. And I cannot promise the same for Thor."

"You and Thor should talk," Tony said. "When you're, you know, not drugged."

"The time is gone," Loki said.

"Wait."

Loki turned.

"What did you do with the Tesseract?"

Loki's eyes flashed. "So, is that what you wanted from me?"

"Yes." Tony stood his ground.

"All we are is used," Loki murmured. Then he said, "Very well, Stark. I don't have the Tesseract. I told you the truth."

"Then where is it?" Tony asked.

"When you asked why I ended up on Earth, my answer was true," Loki told him. "I had used my magic and mistakenly ended up here. I had used my magic to travel in time. I sent the Tesseract to the past."

Tony frowned. "That can't be true. Why would you be telling me this if it were true? I expected a bit more resistance."

Loki grinned. "Why resist if the truth gives you no benefit?" he asked. "Listen to me, Stark. I sent the Tesseract back in time."

Understanding dawned on Tony. "And we can't time travel."

"You can't." Loki's smile disappeared. "As it turns out, I am the cause for much that goes wrong in this world, but it is better than the alternative. You cannot have the Tesseract. Asgard cannot have the Tesseract. Nobody shall have it."

"Where did you put it?"

"I sent it back in time, and it was discovered by a man named Schmidt during your second world war," Loki said. "Think of it as a small revenge for my defeat in this very city at the hand of your people. But also as a gift, I suppose."

"A gift, wait, what?" Tony asked.

Something in Loki's expression shifted. If he were anyone else, it might have been sadness. But Tony had no idea what he would be sad about.

"Perhaps we may see each other again," Loki said, "when you have use for me. Or I you."

"Oh, no," Tony said, "we're not gonna start that game again—"

But Loki disappeared, leaving not a trace behind.

Tony stared at the spot where Loki had been.

Then he thought about who found the Tesseract, and where Loki left it, and what that meant.

And then he cried out, "Son of a bitch!"

Small revenge, indeed.


	4. Mark 43

As far as important things went, the location of the Tesseract, one of the most powerful artifacts in the universe, was pretty much the top of the list.

But considering the Tesseract was in a time loop, Tony didn't exactly feel the need to tell SHIELD about it. Nor did he feel like explaining how he'd come across that information, because every time he thought of an explanation in his head, it sounded suspiciously like betrayal.

And even though what Tony had done, setting Loki free, had yielded results and most certainly _wasn't_ betrayal, he knew everyone else wouldn't see it that way. They'd just think Tony was batshit insane and he'd probably get kicked off the Avengers and put on SHIELD's shit list. Or something.

So while SHIELD scrambled to figure out what had gone wrong in their plan and how to fix it, Tony did nothing.

At some point, Bruce found himself alone with Tony and he brought it up by saying, "You wouldn't happen to know what happened with the whole Loki situation, would you?"

And Tony replied, "Nope," and they both knew he was lying but the conversation pretty much stopped there. Bruce could figure it out. Bruce was smart. He also wasn't going to tell anyone because Bruce was his science buddy, and science buddies stuck together.

And, to be honest, Tony thought it wouldn't come back to bite him in the ass because he thought he'd never see Loki again. That kind of thinking usually got people in trouble. Tony had thought that the whole New York alien invasion wouldn't be back to bite him in the ass and he ended up having panic attacks about it a year later, and making forty-two versions of his prized Iron Man suit. Then his house was destroyed.

Tony didn't have a good track record of not being bitten in the ass when it came to villains.

He was just glad nobody else had noticed.

(They did notice but were kind enough not to mention it.)

So when Tony saw Loki considering the window display of carved meat at a shawarma shop on Manhattan's Lower East Side, he, to put it not so mildly, flipped a shit.

It could only get better from there.

* * *

What happened was this: Tony spotted Loki. Tony recognized that Loki was standing in front of his favorite shawarma spot, in fact the very spot he'd taken the Avengers to eat after the whole alien invasion of New York fiasco. And that pretty much sent him over the edge. He ran over and grabbed Loki's arm and pulled him into an adjacent alleyway that smelled a bit like old meat and piss.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Tony hissed as he pushed Loki against a wall. A small part of his brain was aware that Loki was letting him because ordinarily Loki wouldn't allow this, but he ignored that part of his brain. "SHIELD's looking everywhere for you and you're just standing in the middle of the sidewalk in the city you nearly destroyed?"

"Thor talked much of this place when he brought me to Asgard," Loki said, looking the picture of unruffled. "I don't see the appeal, personally."

"Oh, are you ready to admit Thor's your brother again?" Tony snapped.

Loki glared at him and pushed him away, walking a few paces further down the alleyway. Tony noted that he was wearing a suit and looked a bit like a businessman. He hated to think it, but Loki would have blended in had he not been, well, Loki.

"Was that mean?" Tony asked. "Because even if it was, I'm not taking it back."

Loki's expression was positively burning, but at this point Tony figured he'd lived through enough to survive a dirty look. Even if that dirty look led to physical harm.

"You are foolish," Loki said, finally.

"I never said I was anything but," Tony told him with a smile. "But seriously, what are you doing here? Do you want to get captured?"

"I'm trying to figure out why certain…people treasure this planet," Loki said. "The food is nothing special."

"It isn't about the food," Tony said. "And why?"

"I have been busy. I need time to myself."

"So you're playing tourist instead of destroyer this time," Tony concluded. "Good. That's, um, good. But you're pretty much a wanted man."

Loki smirked. "Oh am I?"

Tony knew that smirk. He hated that smirk on other people. "Not like that. Just that everyone here wants to kill you. You know."

"Ah. The usual, then."

"Oh, come on. There must be some planet you're not wanted on." Loki stared at him. Tony swallowed. "No? Okay then."

Loki laughed, suddenly. It wasn't evil-sounding or anything, which took Tony by surprise. "There are some planets that don't count me as an enemy. But this is the one I'm most curious about."

"Because you tried to rule it and you want to see what you missed out on?" Tony asked. "Or because you want to rule it again?"

"Because I am curious," Loki said. "I want to see what makes this planet so worthwhile."

"You should've done that before you tried to take over," Tony pointed out.

Loki stared at him again.

"Fine," Tony said. "You want a vacation? I can show you one. I have a mansion in Malibu. Now, Malibu isn't like New York City. It's on a beach. It's nice. There's less people, sure, but it's peaceful. Like, relaxing and stuff."

"Is that so," Loki said, moving closer.

Tony stood his ground. "Yeah. You know. Just rebuilt it a few months ago. It was destroyed, actually. You wouldn't know about that. But I have money, people, they took care of it. I thought I wouldn't need it because I've got this place and other places but turns out I do need a waterfront home and I liked it, it's got lots of space and a change of scenery so I had them rebuild because Tony Stark doesn't just give up his property when it gets destroyed-"

"Show me," Loki said.

"What?"

Loki grabbed his arm and everything disappeared-

-and reappeared. Except not the same things.

Tony staggered and hit a wall. A wall in his mansion. A cream-colored wall in his mansion. He turned around and found himself staring out a floor-to-ceiling window at the ocean. Loki stood a few feet away.

"Sir, I would like to point out that there is a criminal with you at the moment," Jarvis intoned.

"Yeah, I know. It's fine for now," Tony gasped.

"Are you sure, sir?" Jarvis asked. He sounded concerned. Tony swore that the AI was getting more human-like by the day.

"I'm sure." Tony finally extracted himself from the wall and stepped forward. Loki was staring at the ocean with something like awe.

"Your planet is round," he said after a moment.

"Yeah, sure is," Tony said. "Most planets are."

"Mmm," was Loki's response.

Tony went over to the bar, because he figured that Loki would also want to experience alcohol at some point and, even if he didn't, Tony _definitely_ wanted to experience alcohol. He downed two shots of whiskey before Loki stopped staring at the ocean and made his way over. Tony poured him a glass, which Loki took but didn't drink.

"It's good," Tony said, downing a third drink.

"I don't quite believe you," Loki said. He sounded more subdued than usual. Or perhaps this was because Tony was used to Loki being a drama queen. Or maybe it was because they were the only two people in this building. Tony suddenly realized how far away everyone else was.

"Fuck," he said out loud, because the alcohol was getting to him. He flexed his hand and wished for his suit, and he had been getting better about wishing for his suit in non-battle situations.

"Pardon?" Loki said, still holding the glass that was still full of golden liquid.

"Nothing," Tony said. He looked into his drink (fifth? The situation called for at least six) and frowned. "No, actually, we never really talked about it."

"About what?"

"The invasion. You know, when you killed everyone."

"That is an exaggeration, Stark," Loki said. "I didn't kill everyone. You and your team live."

"And yeah, the world's not empty but that's not the point," Tony said. "The point is, you're on the list of Things That Have Royally Fucked Me Up."

Loki actually took a sip of his drink at this. "How so?"

Tony was slightly annoyed that he didn't seem to be affected by the strong taste of the alcohol. "I flew into space, into fucking space, and nearly died in that void because of you, just to fix the mess you created, and I couldn't sleep. I couldn't go anywhere without my suit. I was messed up. I was _terrified_. I had nightmares and it's all because you had to come here-"

"The void," Loki repeated.

Tony thought he looked paler but didn't stop. "I almost couldn't function. I wasn't functioning properly. Because I thought of dying, all alone in the blackness with nothing but those Chitauri ships and the corpses of aliens floating around me."

Clint's response to that, Tony remembered, was, "Well, at least it wouldn't have bothered you because you'd have been dead."

Clint wasn't a good therapist. Even Bruce, who didn't really listen, was better. Marginally.

But Loki was the best, if only for the simple reason that finally, Tony could blame someone. He could lay it on thick. He couldn't be angry about his experience to Pepper, or Rhodey, or to the other Avengers. But this had been Loki's fault and he wanted Loki to know that it had hurt. That it had consequences.

"I could've lived without that experience," Tony added. "I could've lived without the nightmares and the panic attacks. And I'm good, now, sure. I destroyed my suits and got over my fears and all this other crap. But still. It happened. Are you even sorry about that? Are you even sorry about the people you killed? Because you come to me and talk to me like, I don't know, like Thor talks to me and you're not Thor. You don't even deserve to talk to me like Thor does, like you did nothing. And that's not okay with me, because you did. You did something horrible."

Loki was silent for a few moments, his face emotionless. Tony thought about saying more but managed to keep silent.

Then, "I have been punished for my wrongs," Loki murmured.

"Like hell you have," Tony snapped. "You're not rotting away in Asgard. You escaped and got to do whatever."

"We're more alike than you admit, Stark," Loki said.

Tony slammed down his glass, nearly breaking it. "The fuck does that mean?"

Loki placed his glass gently on the bar and turned away from him. He began making his way towards the window. Tony followed him on unsteady feet. Beyond them, the ocean extended towards the horizon, a deep blue abyss.

"Asgard is flat," Loki said after a moment, voice flat, as though he were reciting something. "There is an ocean that meets the land, but where that ocean ends on the horizon is a waterfall. And whatever travels past the edge falls down forever, into the void." A pause. "I used to think the void was empty, but it is full of many things. There isn't nothingness. Nothingness would be a blessing."

Tony tried to process this. Loki was talking like he'd been in the void, but-

"Asgard is flat," was all Tony could say.

Loki regarded him with a slightly amused quirk of his lips, before he became serious again. "I can't be what I was, Stark," Loki said. "I have been shaped by my experience. I can't take back what I did. I can't regret it. You can either accept that, or not. But this is your choice."

"Why would I accept it?" Tony asked. "Why does it matter?"

Loki shrugged.

"If I accepted that," Tony added, "that doesn't mean I'd be accepting anything you did in the future. You know, I can't condone that sort of thing. I used to kill people for a living, sort of, but I can't do that anymore. I wouldn't be able to live with myself. And I can't associate myself with that kind of thing."

"You assume I'm coming back."

"Are you?"

Loki watched him. "Perhaps," he said. "You are someone different."

"You like different?"

"Perhaps I need it."

Tony swallowed. "What happened to you? The thing that made you the way you are?"

"I'm sure you already know," Loki said.

And then he disappeared.

"It appears you are alone, sir," Jarvis said.

"Thanks for that. I had no idea." Tony downed his drink. He couldn't feel his nose. "Jarvis, did you get a reading on Loki's appearance and disappearance?"

"Of course, sir. I have downloaded them to your computer."

"Great. Now, let's find out how he did it."

Tony made his way to the workshop.


	5. Rescue

"Anthony Edward Stark, what have you done?"

Tony shut down the program on his computer that was running tests and models on Loki's magic (specifically, the recordings of Loki's teleportation) and ran a hand through his hair. "Nice to see you too, Pepper."

He turned around. Pepper was standing at the threshold of the workshop, looking gorgeous in a white blazer and skirt, her strawberry-blond hair falling around her shoulders.

She looked pissed.

"How was your trip?" Tony asked.

Pepper took a few long strides across the room and stopped right in front of Tony, putting her hands on her hips. "It would have been better if I didn't find out what you were doing while I was away."

"Pepper," Tony said, "it was nothing bad-"

"I was gone for four weeks-"

"I mean, I'm alive, that's all you can ask for-"

"You could have called-"

"-the tower's intact-"

"-you should have listened, and I had to hear it from Jarvis of all people-"

"Jarvis isn't a person, honey."

Pepper glared at him. "Please tell me why you've been having conversations with a war criminal."

"If I tell you-wait, Jarvis, you told her? Who else did you tell, SHIELD?"

"I felt it was prudent that Miss Potts know, sir," Jarvis said. "SHIELD remains unaware of the full extent of your contact with Mr. Laufeyson."

"Which is ridiculous," Pepper added. "Because SHIELD can protect you, Tony. You're dealing with some guy who threw you out a window the first time you met each other. That's not okay!"

"Is this an intervention?" Tony asked. He was beginning to feel cornered.

"Sir, I must express my agreement with Miss Potts at this time," Jarvis said. "Your relationship to Mr. Laufeyson is dangerous at best."

"I didn't program you to have opinions, Jarvis," Tony snapped. "Nobody asked you."

"Actually, sir, you did," Jarvis said.

"I hate you." Tony stood up and held out his arms to Pepper. "Can I get a hug?"

"No," Pepper said. "You could've gotten killed. You can still get us killed. He's a maniac on the loose and why are you even talking to him, anyway?"

That was a good question. "He's interesting," Tony said. Pepper gave him a Look. Tony added, "He's got magic. Magic isn't a thing. Science is a thing. I want to see how it works. I mean, he hasn't agreed to those terms specifically, but the more he comes around the more readings Jarvis gets, and right now I'm trying to figure out how his teleportation trick works, see if those guys from Star Trek are right or if it's-"

"Terms," Pepper repeated. "Your terms. And you never thought that maybe you should, I don't know, involve someone else in this?"

"Like who?"

"Like his brother. Thor, remember him?"

Tony sighed. "Yeah, Thor looks like a kicked puppy whenever anyone brings Loki up. Loki isn't exactly stable, or anything. And he certainly isn't ready to talk to Thor. Whatever happened, he told me himself, he won't be the same person he was before. And that's what Thor wants from him. He wants the old Loki back, whoever that was, and that's not happening."

Pepper looked surprised. "He told you that?"

"Yeah." It was strange to say it out loud. Loki had told him something. And it had been personal. And it hadn't been a death threat. It had been _insight._ "He doesn't say much. I don't know who he was, though. I don't know what Thor wants from him."

"It isn't your job to fix him," Pepper pointed out.

"I know." Tony hadn't really thought about it. "I wouldn't dream of it. Guy's a bag of cats. I just want his magic."

"I don't think that's it," Pepper said. She knew him too well. "The point is, you can't deal with him by yourself."

"What if there's nothing to deal with?" Tony asked. "What if he's over whatever crazy thing it is that caused him to destroy New York?"

"You just don't get over that," Pepper said. She sighed and added, "We can talk about this later. I'm tired. I'm jet-lagged."

Tony hugged her and murmured in her ear, "Want a massage?"

Pepper laughed, soft. "I would love one."

"And then something a bit…better than a massage?"

"You know me too well."

And that would have been fine.

But in Tony Stark's life, things were never just fine.

Two days later Pepper was taken hostage.

* * *

"For fuck's sake—Jarvis, what happened?"

"Sir, at approximately 14:00 hours Mr. Laufeyson broke into your Tower and disappeared with Miss Potts, reappearing at your mansion in upstate New York. He has overridden my programming and locked down the mansion. Miss Potts is still alive. I cannot contact them."

"How the fuck did he do that?" Tony asked through gritted teeth. "Figure it out. I'm heading over there. Tell the team I'll be back later."

"Sir," Jarvis said, "would it not be prudent to tell them-"

"It would be prudent," Tony snapped, "but I'm not going to."

At some point during the time Tony and the Avengers had been fighting a new villain in downtown New York City, Loki had broken into his tower and taken Pepper, and it made Tony furious. If Loki hurt Pepper, Tony would have no problem tossing Loki into the void himself, Thor and Asgard be damned. If Pepper died—well, he didn't want to think about that.

He flew as fast as the suit allowed towards his mansion, as Jarvis tried and failed again and again to make a call to the mansion. Loki had blocked everything. Almost as if he were the one who'd invented the mansion's security system and not Tony.

That in itself made Tony even more angry. Nobody should have been able to tamper with his programs except for him.

Still, he kept trying, and as he got within twenty miles of the mansion one of the calls went through.

"Ah, Mr. Stark." That was Loki's voice, calm and annoyingly over-confident as always. "I assume you're on your way. In fact, your machine tells me that you're twenty minutes out."

"And closing," Tony said. "You know, I was willing to give you a chance. I listened to you. I fucking didn't tell SHIELD about you and now you take Pepper-"

"Yes," Loki said.

"What?"

"Miss Potts and I have unfinished business," Loki continued. "I'm afraid I can't have you interrupting us."

"Well, too bad, because I'm gonna-"

"Sir, your power is dropping rapidly," Jarvis interrupted. "Thirty percent-fifteen-ten-"

"That's not possible," Tony breathed. "Jarvis, what's going on?"

"I—one—prepare for crash landing."

"What?!"

Suddenly, the air dropped out from underneath him. Tony fell towards the snow-covered trees that made up the desolate forests of upstate New York. He managed to get the rockers working briefly to slow his fall, but crashed hard into at least five trees before landing in a burst of snow.

"Fuck!" Tony screamed. He turned around. Nothing but trees. His suit lay on the ground in pieces. He picked up the helmet. "Jarvis, please tell me you can get me out of here?"

"Sir," Jarvis said, voice coming in distorted, "I have been ordered to take a nap."

"You're a robot, you don't take naps!" Tony yelled. "Come on, Jarvis, I'm your creator and I order you to wake up. Jarvis? I swear-"

"Goodnight, sir," Jarvis said.

Tony threw the helmet against the tree, which solved nothing.

* * *

"I don't like you," Pepper told Loki as soon as they re-appeared in the mansion. Teleportation was smoother than she'd thought it would be, and faster. She was still holding the cup of coffee she'd been drinking, and it was undisturbed.

"I don't need you to like me," Loki said, "but we need to talk."

"About?"

"About Stark, of course."

Pepper rolled her eyes. "When is it ever not about Tony?"

Which was how they ended up sitting in Tony's mansion workshop in chairs across from each other. Pepper had a fresh cup of coffee. Loki had a mug of tea steaming on the table beside his chair. But he was more interested in her.

"I hope you know," Pepper said, "that if you try anything, I will have to retaliate and it won't be pretty." It wasn't an empty threat, but she wasn't sure if it meant anything in the face of someone who could throw a grown man out a window.

"I assume you know that I've been in contact with Stark," Loki said. "This has been…a secret. For lack of a more creative term."

"And you love creativity, don't you," Pepper said. Loki smirked. "But yes, I do know. I don't like it. I'm sure you can understand why."

"I can understand," Loki said. "I am more than capable. I simply want to ensure your cooperation."

"Oh." Pepper took a sip of her coffee. "You mean that I won't tell SHIELD? Or the Avengers? And that I'll let it continue to happen?"

"Yes." Loki picked up his mug, steam curling from his drink into the air. "You hold a certain power over Stark and his company. I have no doubt that you can make things difficult for me. And I would like things to be…less difficult. When things are difficult, people get hurt."

"Like they did in New York City, when you attacked," Pepper said. "Look, you're right, no matter what Tony says I can always do something different, especially if I feel it's for his own good. Like telling SHIELD would be for his own good. Why shouldn't I?"

"You want to bargain?" Loki grinned, amused. "I could simply kill you right here."

"But you won't," Pepper told him, "because if you want to continue talking to Tony, you need me alive. He'd kill you if you killed me."

"Interesting," was the response.

"And," Pepper continued, "from what I've heard, Tony is one of the only people, if not the only person, who'll listen to you. You've made enemies of everyone else-"

"They have made themselves my enemies," Loki snarled.

"The point is, you have enemies. And Tony's the only one who gave you the time of day. So, if you lose him, you lose your only ally. You need someone."

"I don't _need_ anyone," Loki snapped. "What I do, I do for my own pleasure."

"You have major family issues," Pepper said. It was risky, bringing this up. But there wasn't much she could do. At the moment, Tony was miles away and the mansion was locked down, and she had no weapons on her. All she had were her words. And she was good with words. "You're not on speaking terms with Thor, or your parents, or anyone from Asgard. You've lost people, whether it's their fault or yours. Something happened that made you lose your trust in them, and then you pushed them away. Everybody needs someone. And you find Tony interesting."

"No," Loki said.

"Why can't you admit it?" Pepper asked him. "You're so focused on telling me that you don't need Tony, that you don't care whether or not he's angry at you because of whatever you do to me, but you haven't killed me. You haven't even attacked anyone or anywhere since you started talking to him, at least not on Earth, which is all we can ask for. And you talk to Tony about things-some personal stuff, some not, because you can't just be straightforward. So just admit it and make our lives easier. I'm more likely to trust honesty."

There was a pause, in which Loki watched her. His eyes flashed with anger before he managed to control his emotions. He took a deep breath and released it. "You think you've figured it out-"

"Don't start that," Pepper interrupted. "I know I've figured it out. Not the whole picture, but some of it. Why do you keep playing this game?"

Loki stared at her. Pepper stared back. Loki's stare was intimidating, but Pepper wouldn't look away.

Finally, Loki said, "I could be lying."

"What?" Pepper asked. "What are you talking about?"

"I could be lying," Loki repeated, "if I tell you that I need Stark. If I tell you that I am not sure what I want, but I find Stark interesting, because he is like me, a genius who was overlooked, misunderstood, but he made himself a better life. That I have red on my ledger, and I am a monster, but Stark looks past this, he, as you put it, 'gave me the time of day' and without him, I would be left to my own devices, and on my own I remember the void and become lost in it again, falling through space and reliving the horrors. I could be playing your emotions when I say these things to you. They could be lies, just as my toying with Stark could be a lie, as my threats could be lies, as the very man you see before you is a lie. How could you trust me?"

"I don't," Pepper said. "But I can choose what to believe."

"You would choose to believe a lie?" Loki asked.

Pepper placed her coffee cup aside and folded her hands in her lap. She looked straight at Loki again. "I can choose to believe the better lie, if it is a lie," she said, "and hope that it might be true."

"You would gamble on Stark's life," Loki said. "And hope to win."

"I would take a chance, like Tony took a chance, on you," Pepper said. "But the second you screw up, I'll make sure you pay for it. As you pointed out, I have many resources and I can hurt you. And I won't hesitate to do so."

Loki fixed her with a hard look, and Pepper didn't waver. He stood up and walked over. Pepper stood up as well. He held out his hand. Pepper took it; the hand was slim and cold, but the grip firm as she shook it.

"Accepted," Loki said.

And then he disappeared.

Pepper wasn't given much time to recover. Jarvis' voice came over the speakers, saying, "Miss Potts, my systems have been restored. Mr. Stark is en route to your location."

"Thank you, Jarvis," Pepper said. Then she sat down in her chair, took up her cup of coffee, and waited.


	6. Shoot to Kill

"Things have gotten about as bad as they can get," Tony said to anyone who'd listen.

"You dumbfuck, don't say that," Clint snapped. "It'll just get worse. And a fucking portal? What is that doing here?"

On an ordinary day Clint's assertion that there was a portal present would have sounded stupid. It still sounded stupid, but it wasn't an ordinary day.

"We have to close it," Natasha snapped. "Has anyone found anything that might indicate a machine or-"

The Hulk crashed into Natasha, having tried, as Bruce Banner, to get closer to the portal sight, which resembled the bottom of a wind-storm, and was thrown off to the side by the force of said wind.

"Nailed it," Tony called.

"This looks familiar," Thor said with a frown. "I shall investigate."

"You're not going to fly into the-" Tony started, but Thor had already thrown his hammer and himself into the wind, and he'd disappeared into the storm. "Yeah, you are, okay. Nobody make plans or listens to Tony. On the bright side, at least nothing's coming through."

"Doesn't mean we don't have problems," Steve said.

An area with a radius of a few blocks in Los Angeles had been destroyed, seemingly by no one. Just a big portal to somewhere.

"Space," Jarvis had suggested when Tony asked.

It would have been impressive had it been not on this planet and they'd known what was going on.

Fury was probably somewhere close by, having a heart attack because this was exactly the sort of problem he wanted to avoid, one the Avengers could not solve.

And then, just like that, the portal closed.

Thor dropped to the ground, hammer hitting and splitting the concrete, hair still blowing in the wind that had died down to manageable levels looking every bit like the hero he was.

A few feet away, the Hulk had become Bruce Banner again and Bruce Banner was half naked and looking very much not like a hero. He looked like he'd been on a three night bender through all of Los Angeles' bars and then some.

Clint, Natasha, and Steve didn't look much better.

"You shut it off," Clint said, staring at Thor.

Thor was staring at the sky. "Nay, friends," he said, "that was not my doing. This stopped on its own."

"What's that?" Natasha asked. She had walked closer to Thor but stopped a few feet away, looking at the ground.

Thor looked down, as did everyone else. Tony gasped. "Jarvis, I'm gonna fly over, take a few pictures."

Thor stood in the center of a circle made up of intricate symbols seemingly carved into the ground. Tony took the images from above and landed next to Thor, who looked shocked.

"What is it?"

"This is the bifrost," Thor said. "The bifrost was fixed, as you know, and whenever one travels via bifrost there is a symbol left behind."

"A byproduct of the bifrost," Tony said, and then snickered. Steve gave him a look of disapproval.

"But no one came through," Natasha said. "And it destroyed a lot of buildings."

"Why would someone turn on the bifrost if not to go through it?" Bruce asked.

Thor looked very, very somber. "If the bifrost is left open long enough," he said, "it can destroy the surrounding area and, potentially, an entire realm."

"And how would you know that?" Tony asked. "Science experiments?"

Thor gave him one of those "quit while you're ahead" looks.

"But who would do that to Earth?" Clint asked.

"I don't know," Thor said. "Perhaps I should take a trip to Asgard and find out. But if Heimdall is not operating the bridge, I do not want to risk going back."

"Understandable," Clint said. "But we need some way to find out."

"Listen," Tony said, "you have two scientists on the team and a Norse God who knows all about this sort of stuff. We're bound to figure out something. Thor, what's this symbolism mean, anyway?"

Thor looked troubled. "I do not know."

"What, they didn't teach you what this stuff meant in Asgard-school?"

"They did," Thor said. "Now that I think about it, these symbols are not Asgardian in nature. I cannot read them at all."

Tony glanced at Bruce. The whole group became dejected.

"Well then," Tony said, "looks like we'll have to pull an all-nighter."

Because if someone had access to an inter-planetary travel device that could also destroy planets (and whose idea was that?), lack of sleep was the least of their problems.

* * *

On the list of extremely bad ideas, calling Loki in to deal with an Avengers problem that none of the Avengers could solve ranked near the top. Calling Loki in to deal with an Asgard problem that their resident Asgardian (who also happened to be Loki's adoptive brother, with whom he had major issues) couldn't solve was number one on the list.

Tony did it anyway.

In terms of contacting Loki, it wasn't so much about making a sacrifice and praying to the god of goats as it was about using the number Loki had sneakily left in Tony's workshop (without his knowledge or permission) to send a quick text.

The text only read, "Need help on magic stuff."

That would probably make Loki interested. The bad news part would come later. It served Loki right, really, after he'd kidnapped Pepper. Speaking of which…

"Don't tell Pepper," Tony told Jarvis.

"Sir, that is not the best course of action," Jarvis said. Then, after a pause, "However, if you wish I will not tell Miss Potts unless the situation becomes dire."

"You're learning," Tony said fondly.

"It is my programming, sir," Jarvis replied.

Tony rolled his eyes, placed his phone on the desk in front of him, and waited.

* * *

Loki chose to appear at three in the morning, on Tony's bed. Literally. Tony woke from his blessedly dream-free sleep to find someone looming over him. He yelled and tried to sit up, only for the person looming above him to pin him down.

Tony's eyes adjusted and he realized who, exactly, was responsible for waking him up and he groaned. "Loki, get off me."

"You called," Loki murmured.

"Get off," Tony insisted. "This isn't—this is my bed!"

"I hear you take many to your bed, Stark," Loki said.

"Yeah, many, not you," Tony snapped. "Get off. Jerk. I need your help."

"I saw." Loki held up his cellphone, which glowed in the darkness.

"You couldn't come, I don't know, earlier?" Tony asked.

Loki slid off him and sat at the edge of the bed. Tony sat up and ran a hand over his face, trying to wake himself up.

"What magical problem do you face?" Loki asked. Now he sounded bored, perhaps a little disappointed. He was like a cat in need of attention. A cat who only wanted to play games. And kill people.

"So, you know the bifrost?"

Loki stared at him. "Of course I know the bifrost, Stark. Where do you think I came from?"

"Yeah, about that, actually, the bifrost happened," Tony said. "In Los Angeles. No one came out, it was just destroying. And then the kicker—Thor said it didn't come from Asgard."

At the mention of Thor, Loki visibly stiffened. "How does he know that?" he asked.

"Um, he can't confirm it," Tony admitted, "but he did say that the language of the symbol thingy the bifrost leaves behind wasn't his."

"That's ridiculous," Loki snapped. "He speaks the All-tongue. He should understand it."

"Well, do you?" Tony swung his legs off the bed and made his way to his desk, upon which rested his laptop. He opened the computer and found the photographs he had taken. Loki leaned closer to the screen, which reflected off his face, giving Tony the strange impression that Loki's skin was a light, glowing blue. But Loki was focused completely on the photographs. His mouth set into a thin line.

"This isn't possible," he said.

"Well, there it is. Explain?" Tony turned around.

Loki stared past him. "This isn't from Asgard."

"What if it is?" Tony asked. "Thor said he didn't want to travel there because if it was from Asgard travel there could be dangerous."

Loki glared at him. "You idiot."

"Hey, I was right-"

"You knew this would require me to travel to Asgard, and to help your Avengers-"

"I really had no other choice-"

"-to help Thor, of all people." Loki grabbed Tony by the shoulders in a crushing grip.

"Please don't kill me," Tony said. "Besides, you kidnapped Pepper. Because you couldn't just say how you felt. I think we're even."

Loki let go. "Fine. I will help you with this problem, Stark, but don't expect me to help you again. And this is not for Thor."

"Sure," Tony said.

Loki stepped back. "It is for myself, to satiate my own curiosity," he snapped. "Don't forget that."

"Yup, right. Not forgetting." By the time Tony finished speaking, Loki had disappeared. "Rude," he said to the air.

The air did not respond.

* * *

Tony didn't tell the Avengers how he was going to solve their problem, only that he was solving. Over breakfast he said that he had a feeling that Thor was right, that the bifrost wasn't Asgard's bifrost. He got suspicious looks from Natasha and Clint, amazed looks from Steve and Thor, and curiosity from Bruce. So much so that after breakfast, Bruce approached him once the others had left.

"How do you know this stuff, Tony?" he asked. "Thor's from there and he doesn't know."

"Well, see, that's the thing," Tony said, "Thor's from there."

Bruce raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, and?"

"And," Tony continued, "and, well, um, sometimes we need a different perspective. He needed another perspective. Yeah. I looked at the photographs and, um, gave them my perspective."

Bruce simply looked at him for a moment. Then he asked, "Do you know who's behind it, then?"

"Uh, no," Tony admitted. "I need some more…perspective."

"Good luck," Bruce said. "And let me know if you need help with that."

"Will do," Tony called after him.

He went back to his workshop to stare at the pictures some more. Then someone touched his shoulder and he jumped five feet in the air, landing back in his chair in an undignified heap. Loki was smirking at him.

"Fuck you," Tony snapped.

"I went to Asgard," Loki said, ignoring him and pacing, "and I had a discussion with our gatekeeper. The bifrost, while recently repaired, has not seen much in the way of use. Thor uses it the most frequently as a means to travel between Midgard and Asgard. The bifrost has seen no other use, certainly nothing unusual. I asked him about the symbols that this other bifrost left behind. He has seen them. Do you know what he said?"

If Tony hadn't wanted to stay alive, he might have said (out loud) that Loki seemed agitated. "No, I don't know what he said."

"He said," Loki answered, "that the writing is ancient. The symbols are ancient, as old, if not older, than the universe itself."

"What."

"Do you know what came before the universe?"

"Nothing," Tony said. "Nothing came before the universe because the universe is the universe-it's everything."

"Darkness, Stark," Loki said. Then he added, with emphasis, "the Void."

"The Void," Tony repeated. Loki nodded. "That's stupid."

"Why?" Loki asked. "Does it not fit your world view? Do you find it hard to comprehend that something existed before the universe?"

"Um, yeah," Tony said. "I'm a scientist. I still don't think magic is legitimately a thing. Are you telling me that this darkness was alive or something? That someone else is trying to destroy the universe?"

"More than one someone," Loki said. "I must find out which one."

"Wait, hold on, this is ridiculous," Tony said. "Why can't it just be another planet or something? Why does it have to be something from before the universe?"

"Because," Loki said, sounding like he was talking to a five-year-old, "the symbols are from before the universe. Only ancient beings could have written them. Come, we must consult Jane Foster." He grabbed Tony's arm.

"Oh sure," Tony said, "it's that easy, it's not like someone couldn't just learn that language like people learn Latin even though it's ancient, you have to have some people who know-wait, did you say Jane Foster?"

Then everything disappeared.

* * *

Tony landed hard, cursing as his knees hit the floor. He felt a hand brush his shoulder and heard Loki's footsteps. He looked up; they were in New Mexico, in Jane Foster's lab. He'd been there once before to meet her. Thor spoke very highly of Foster, and while Tony wasn't inclined to take the opinion of someone whose favorite food was pop tarts very seriously, Jane had more than proved herself to be a competent scientist in his eyes.

Which meant, actually, that he wanted Loki no where near her.

Plus, Thor would probably freak out.

Loki had made his way over to Jane's desk, which was a mess of papers. There were two laptops, both closed, lying on top of some of the papers. A blackboard had equations scrawled on it. Tony had offered to replace the blackboard with something better, but Jane insisted on keeping it. She seemed to like getting her hands full of chalk. Or something.

Luckily, Jane wasn't here.

Tony staggered to his feet just as Loki reached out for one of the papers. "We need to get out of here right now," he said in the most authoritative voice he could manage. Loki barely expended the effort to throw him an amused look before turning back to the papers.

Tony groaned and started walking towards the desk, but something gave him pause. He turned towards a second desk, which had a name card, less papers, and a cup of coffee on it. The name card read Darcy Lewis. Tony couldn't help but smile at that. And to think, Darcy had majored in Political Science.

He turned back to Loki, who was now regarding the equations on the board with some interest. "Loki," he called.

"I can work with this," Loki said.

"Since when do you know physics? Or math?"

"I am not an idiot, Stark," Loki said. "I am capable of learning."

"Right." Tony sighed. "Right, okay, but we gotta go because if I recall correctly Thor thought you were a threat to Jane-"

"-and now I need her," Loki finished for him. "I am not concerned with Thor, and if you want my help, you should not be concerned with him, either."

"I made a deal with the devil," Tony said.

Loki grinned. "You are too kind."

Tony was thinking of a response when he heard a door open and two gasps. "Jane, I think someone broke into your lab," came Darcy's voice.

Jane and Darcy appeared, Darcy holding a taser and pointing it at Loki. Jane's eyes moved from Tony to Loki and her expression became confused.

"What is this?" she asked.

"I can explain," Tony said.

Loki turned towards Jane and smiled. "I am Loki. You might have heard of me-"

"You destroyed New York," Jane said, "and you killed a lot of people. I've heard of you. And I don't want you in my lab."

"Someone better explain something now," Darcy added, "or I'll taser him. And let me tell you, this thing took out Thor. It can take out anyone."

Loki regarded the taser with contempt but gestured towards Tony. "If you won't believe me, allow Stark to explain."

"You get one minute," Jane said.

"Whoa, pressure," Tony said, "but okay. Um. I'm sure you heard about that incident in Los Angeles this week, yeah?" Jane and Darcy nodded. "Okay, well, what the news won't tell you is that it was a portal to another world. A bifrost, but not Asgard's. Loki figured out that it hadn't come from Asgard's bifrost and now he needs your help to figure out where it came from. Yeah. That's why we're here. Apparently. So that it doesn't happen again."

"Oh no," Loki interrupted, "it needs to happen again. However, I have a plan for when it does. I simply need the help of Doctor Foster."

"Does this plan involve destroying everything?" Darcy asked. "Because that's not the plan we want to support."

"No."

"Then what is it?" Jane asked. "Thor said you were dangerous, and you proved him right when you attacked New York. You're not a good person. How do I know you're not influencing Tony?"

"Because, um, my eyes aren't glowing blue or anything," Tony said. "Besides, no one's dead. We're having a nice talk."

"What's this plan?" Jane asked, folding her arms across her chest and looking at Loki. If she was afraid it was very well hidden.

"Yeah," Tony said, "what's the plan?"

"You have been analyzing bifrost-like phenomena as your career, am I right?" Loki asked.

"Yes," Jane said.

"In order to figure out where this bifrost is from, I need to analyze it from the inside," Loki explained. "In Asgard there are no such tools to analyze a bifrost simply because they believed, perhaps foolishly, that they were the only ones to have the bifrost technology. Now we know that this is simply not the case. I must find out who is using this technology to wield destruction."

"Okay," Jane said, "it sounds…legit. But there is a flaw in your plan."

"What?"

"You want it to happen again," Jane said. "That kind of destruction…you should be aiming to stop it before it happens again. We can't afford it. People will die. Maybe you want that but I don't."

"How would you analyze it, then?" Loki asked.

Jane turned her attention to Tony. "SHIELD must have data from the event, right?"

"I can find out," Tony said. "Download it for you, even. If you can figure something ot from that, then I would be more than happy to help. Jarvis has the photographs of the aftermath, which we can also use. Can I use your computer?"

Jane nodded.

"You're gonna hack into SHIELD?" Darcy asked.

Tony grinned at her.

"Fine," Jane said. "I don't trust you," this to Loki, "but if you guys can figure this out and stop it from happening again, fine."

"And if it does happen," Tony said, "we should probably analyze it. Also. Um. SHIELD and the Avengers can't know we're working with Loki."

"I don't like this," Jane said.

"Thor can't know either," Tony added.

Darcy put her taser back in her bag. "This should be fun," she said.

Everyone ignored her.

* * *

It took Tony half an hour to hack into SHIELD and download all he could find about the bifrost incident to Jane's computer. Loki examined the tools Jane used to analyze bifrost-like events and the information she had garnered from her studies so far. He actually looked impressed, too. It made Tony a bit annoyed. Loki had never looked impressed with his suits.

"See something you like?" he asked as Jane sifted through the data.

Loki's eyes swept the board in front of him. "It seems Doctor Foster is closer to understanding magic than any mortal I have encountered thus far."

Tony scoffed. "That is not true," he said. "That's impossible."

"She would be close to creating a bifrost had she the right technology," Loki told him.

Tony stared at the board. "Okay, now you're just being a jerk."

"Am I?" Loki walked away to check Jane's progress. The two were cordial to each other, but extremely tense in each others' presence. He looked at her computer screen but said nothing, and Jane likewise didn't acknowledge him.

"It's like I'm watching a train wreck waiting to happen," Darcy's voice remarked. Tony turned to find her holding a cup of coffee out to him. He accepted. "Those two are not meant to be in the same room together."

"I didn't agree to this," Tony said. "He forced me."

Darcy raised her eyebrows. "How did he do that?"

"Teleportation."

Darcy feigned a look of sympathy and walked away, handing Loki and Jane cups of coffee. She didn't show fear for Loki, either, which was impressive considering how on edge everyone was.

Loki sipped his drink and his eyes lit up. He sought out Darcy and asked, "What is this beverage?"

"This beverage," Darcy said, holding up her own coffee cup, "is Starbucks coffee. I got you all mochas."

"Too sweet for my tastes," Tony said.

Loki ignored him. "I suppose Midgard has some pleasures after all."

"Are you kidding me?" Darcy said, staring at him. "We could've given you coffee and you wouldn't have tried to take over the world?"

Loki laughed and then said, "No."

"Oh." Darcy looked away and began fiddling with her iPod.

Everyone seemed content to be silent.

Then Tony's phone rang.

He picked up and Steve Roger's voice came through, urgent. "Tony, another portal's opened up. It's in Washington D.C. And it's big."

"Well, fuck," Tony said. "Okay, I'll be there." He turned to Jane. "We got another one."

"Give me your equipment," Loki said.

Jane glared at him. "No. I'll use it myself."

"It's dangerous."

"I don't care."

Loki sighed. "I can see why he likes you," he murmured. Then, louder, he added, "I can enhance your equipment in ways you would not even think of. Give it to me."

"Um," Tony interrupted from behind, "we need to go. Now. I kind of said I'd be there."

Jane hurriedly gathered various tools: cameras, sensors, and assorted bits of technology and thrust them into Loki's arms. Tony grabbed his arm and they disappeared, leaving Jane and Darcy behind.

* * *

As soon as Tony put in the earpiece he used during Avengers missions, he heard voices.

"How the hell did you get here?" Clint asked. "You fucking came out of nowhere?"

"Um," Tony said. He stood on the National Mall, not in his suit, definitely not prepared. Clint had spotted him from his perch in a tree. The other Avengers were scattered trying to evacuate people. The bifrost was ahead, looking like a huge tornado in an otherwise clear sky, tearing into museums and government buildings as the radius of destruction spread from its center.

"Where's your suit?" Clint added.

"He's without his suit?" Steve cried.

"Tony, get your suit on or get out of there," Natasha said.

Tony had been smart enough to invent bracelets that could hold a compacted version of his suit. Mark 44, he'd called it. And he'd been smart enough to wear said bracelets on the trip.

Loki had disappeared, which was unsettling to say the least.

"Where have you been?" Bruce's voice came over the intercom.

"Bruce, lovely to hear from you," Tony said as the suit settled over his shoulders. "Any casualties?"

"We've been evacuating buildings," Bruce said. "I've been assigned to video tape." He almost sounded put out.

"Right. Listen, I'm gonna fly into this thing and see what's what. Where's Thor?"

"You can't fly into it!" Bruce cried.

"Thor's offline," Steve said. "He's helping move people. His earpiece broke."

"How?"

"Lightning," Steve answered.

Tony rolled his eyes. Thor, lightning, and technology far too often didn't mix.

"Anyway," he said, "I'm heading in."

"Don't do that," Bruce said. "We don't know what's in there."

"We need you elsewhere," Steve added.

"No, you need to figure out what's causing these things," Tony said, "and I can do that. Jarvis can take readings and the suit'll protect me." He took off and flew towards the bifrost.

"Wind speeds are increasing rapidly, sir," Jarvis intoned. "There is a high concentration of electricity coming from the bifrost."

Lighting lit up the inside of the bifrost. "Right," Tony said. "Hopefully we don't get fried. Any life readings from inside?"

A pause, before Jarvis answered, "One, sir."

"Of course," Tony muttered, and then he plunged in.

The inside of the bifrost was like the inside of a tornado, not that Tony had ever been inside a tornado, but he imagined there was low visibility, lots of debris, and lightning. There was a surprising amount of lightning.

And then he looked up.

Above him stars shown in a night sky despite the daylight hour. They were not Earth stars.

"Jarvis," he said, "take a picture."

"Done, sir."

Tony looked down.

Symbols were carved into the ground, and standing among them was Loki. He was kneeling and had placed his hands upon the ground. Tony flew downwards and landed next to him.

"Loki," he shouted.

Loki ignored him, head bent over his hands. Upon closer inspection, he was muttering something, and the lines his hands touched glowed green. The green glow slowly spread outwards. Jane's tools were scattered at Loki's feet, unmoving but also unused.

It occurred to Tony, somewhere in the back of his mind that Loki might be doing something important. The other part of his mind that really had no clue what was going on decided that reaching out and touching Loki was a much better option.

Loki's arm jerked under his touch, as if in surprise.

And then everything exploded.

* * *

Tony was knocked unconscious. When he came to, he was lying on cold rock and everything was dark, like it was night. Except it couldn't be night, because it was day last time Tony checked. Which had been a few minutes ago. In theory.

He sat up and heard a rustling sound behind him.

"Jarvis," he said.

His display screen was heartbreakingly devoid of any data, or anything to suggest that his suit was working.

He stood up, the joints of his suit creaking ominously. He knew that if he tried to run, or fly, or fight, he wouldn't succeed.

"I'm afraid," said a voice behind him, "you'll have to go suit-less."

Tony turned to find Loki straightening up and watching him. Loki made a gesture with his hand and Tony's suit fell off, crumbling to the ground in a pile of metal.

Now it was just cold.

"Hey!"

"It would only be a hindrance," Loki said. "Look around."

"Where are we?" Tony asked.

The sky glittered with stars that were unrecognizable. And then Tony looked around at ground-level and saw that they were surrounded by walls, and the walls were lined with some sort of consul, and these walls were circular. There was an opening at one end and beyond that opening, darkness. Inside, everything was lit by a faint glow.

"The source of the bifrost," Loki said.

Tony looked around and realized that Loki was right. That was really the only thing that made sense after having gone into the center of the bifrost and ending up somewhere else.

"Oh, hell no."

"Oh, yes." Loki, the bastard, seemed gleeful. "Another planet. Certainly not a friendly one."

"This is your fault!"

Loki laughed. "I did not ask you to come with me."

With the sinking feeling of one who is guilty, Tony realized that Loki was right. He'd gone into the storm alone, and Tony had followed. Stupidly.

"Fine," Tony snapped, holding his arms. It was very cold. "What now?"

Loki turned around and held up a hand, shushing him. Ordinarily Tony Stark did not stand for being shushed by other people, but considering they were on a different planet, he was willing to make an exception.

A small wind picked up, rustling what seemed like pebbles.

In a quieter voice, Tony asked, "What planet is this?" He had a feeling it wasn't Asgard. Asgard seemed like it would be more…light.

Loki closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath. On his breath out he hissed, "Jotunheim."

Tony shivered.

Loki added, "but there is magic here, and it did not originate here. There is something else. Do you feel cold?"

Tony stared at him. "No."

Loki's answering grin was sharp as a shard of ice. "Nor me. Jotunheim is a planet of ice, home to the Frost Giants-" and here, Tony understood Loki's discomfort with the planet, "-and ordinarily, we would be freezing. But something is keeping us warm."

He glanced up at the stars.

Tony breathed out. His breath frosted. "We're not alone," he murmured.

"Right you are, Stark," Loki said. Then, louder, as if for an audience, "The Frost Giants do not have bifrost technology, have not been able to travel beyond their planet since the last war. They have fallen from glory. This technology comes from elsewhere. This craftsmanship is full of magic, a familiar magic, but a magic not from here."

"From where?" Tony asked.

"The Elves."

And then, something in the shadows moved.

Tony raised his hand only to remember that he was unarmed. There would be no firing of missiles. He was naked. He didn't even have a gun.

Loki sensed his concern and took a step closer. "Stark, do you trust me?"

"No," Tony murmured, because he didn't. He couldn't trust that Loki wouldn't cut and run, or stab him in the back and take his suit as a prize, or simply leave him here to rot on this forsaken planet.

Loki's face remained carefully blank. He didn't look at Tony. "You will have to, now."

"How-" Tony started, but then Loki stepped away.

Everything became eerily silent. Then Loki called out, "I know you are here. Come out and face me."

"Loki," came a voice smooth as silk, "I never expected you to be among those that would defend foolish mortals."

Tony turned in the direction of the voice, along one of the walls behind him. A figure emerged from there, tall and with dark skin and white hair.

"I have my reasons," Loki said. "I do not like to be in debt, and I wished to return a favor. And," he paused, "I was curious."

"This doesn't suit you," said the voice.

"Malekith," Loki replied.

Malekith stepped forward so that Tony got a better look at him. He was an elf, that much Tony could see. He had pointed ears and sharp eyes and he was taller than Loki, which was pretty damn tall. He wore black robes. He might have been an extra on the set of Lord of the Rings.

"It has been awhile, my friend," Malekith said, spreading his arms wide. "But, you don't look happy to see me."

Loki grimaced. "I would not describe are relationship as friendly."

"You and I want the same things," Malekith said. "You want power and respect. I want those as well. We could work together."

In the silence that followed Tony thought that Loki might go for it. Instead he said, "And what is this plan that would win us this glory? I see you have made a bifrost for the Frost Giants."

"Indeed," Malekith said. "They long for revenge against Asgard. I simply tested the bifrost's tendency for destruction against Midgard. They would not need an army, only to open this bifrost on Asgard and destroy it, and then gain the casket."

"There is a problem with that plan," Loki said.

"What?" Malekith tilted his head to the side, curious. "I heard that, as of late, your relations with Asgard have been…unpleasant."

Tony held back a laugh. Unpleasant was an understatement. Malekith's gaze turned to him for a moment before it moved back to Loki.

Loki shifted on his feet. "What happened on Asgard-"

"Stays on Asgard," Tony interrupted. Now they were both staring at him, which Tony might have felt a little more comfortable with if they both weren't space wizards with temper issues. As it was, Tony only stepped in because, well, Loki was doing a lot of talking and not getting anywhere, and Malekith seemed to know how to get under his skin. But he hadn't met Tony. "Look, I don't know who you think you are, but where I'm from family business stays within the family. And you're not even his friend, so you definitely don't get to know."

"And you are?" Malekith asked, raising an eyebrow.

A good question. Tony licked his lips. "I'm helping him," he said. "I have a bit of an interest in Asgard and Earth and I'm not about to give it up to a pack of Elronds."

"Elronds," Loki muttered to himself, incredulously.

"I'm just saying, you chose the wrong planet," Tony finished. "Wrong two planets."

Malekith looked amused, which was discouraging. "Loki, have you really stooped so low as to associate yourself with worthless mortals?"

"Stark is no ordinary mortal," Loki said. And, well, that was encouraging because it was as close to a compliment as Tony would ever get from him.

"I see," Malekith said. "And is he the person you owe a favor?"

"Perhaps," Loki said. "Either way, I have no desire to work with the Frost Giants and certainly no desire to work with you. You have marked yourself an enemy."

"Of your family?" Malekith asked. "Because if you are not on speaking terms-"

"Of me," Loki snapped. "I trusted you, and you hurt-" He cut himself off.

"Thor?" Malekith asked. "Or can't you bear to say his name anymore? Does it hurt you to know that you still care?"

"How does this thing work?" Tony asked, because talking about the other subject was getting really, really tense.

Malekith glared at him, but this look of anger turned into a smile.

Very discouraging.

"Allow me to demonstrate," he said.

A whirring sound started quietly and grew louder and louder and louder. Wind picked up, and the gap between the walls began to glow.

Ice started to creep along the consul, freezing it in place.

The light from the bifrost lit Malekith's face, throwing his mad grin into terrifying relief.

"Please tell me that's not set to Earth," Tony said.

"Oh, it is," Malekith told him, "and I have no intention of stopping it. You see, I am serious about my plan. And I must show you how serious I am."

"You made mistakes," Loki said. "One of them was allowing us to come here." And then he launched forward, hands full of daggers that definitely weren't there before.

He crashed into Malekith, and they both fell against part of the consul. The wind whipped into a frenzy that threatened to suck Tony into the void. He dropped to the ground and groped around until he found the headpiece to his suit.

"Jarvis!" he yelled, tapping the helmet. "Please tell me you're in there, I need help!"

Nothing.

Tony looked up and saw Loki take a swing at Malekith's neck with the dagger, which Malekith dodged by disappearing and reappearing behind Loki. Loki turned just in time to avoid being knifed in the back.

Tony would have liked to do something, but he had no weapons.

Awkward.

But maybe he could do something about the controls. He began to crawl towards them, dragging along a suit glove. He had no idea if the consul was magic controlled or had an actual (if alien) technology to it, but he had to do something other than stare at the two space wizards doing their thing.

He pulled himself up on the consul, slick with ice, and began smashing his glove onto it.

The ice didn't crack. Tony's hand hurt.

"Fuck," he hissed.

He turned around to see Loki lunge at Malekith again. There were puddles of dark liquid on the floor that Tony really, really hoped wasn't blood, but probably was.

Malekith disappeared-

-and didn't reappear.

Loki jerked upright and whipped around, his eyes landing on Tony. He looked pissed off, which was never a good thing. And then his eyes widened-

And hands grabbed Tony's throat and squeezed-

And this was definitely not how he wanted this little adventure to end.

"Give up," Malekith yelled, "or I will end him!"

"Don't end me," Tony yelled.

"Your second mistake," Loki said, too calm for the chaos around them, like he was born to be at the center of mayhem, "is that you allowed me this." And he took out…

A cellphone.

"For fuck's sake," Tony groaned.

Loki pressed the screen and put the phone to his ear.

"What is that?" Malekith asked. "What is he doing?"

"I don't know," Tony answered, because in all honesty he didn't.

Loki snapped a few choice words into the phone—whoever was on the receiving end of the call was probably getting an earful and was very confused about it. Then he made a gesture with his hands and the phone disappeared.

"Perhaps we can do nothing," Loki yelled, "but I know someone who can."

"Wait-" something just dawned on Tony and he felt stupid for not figuring it out earlier-"did you just call Earth from Jotunheim?"

Loki smirked his annoying little I-know-more-than-you-smirk and didn't say anything.

And then Malekith yelled, "I think I'll kill him anyway." Tony felt one of his hands move, presumably to get something unpleasant like a knife.

And then, like in all the action movies, what happened next seemed to happen in slow motion.

Loki disappeared, and Tony saw the glint of a knife and then he was knocked to the ground and the knife skidded across the floor in front of him, glowing in the light of the bifrost.

Tony made a wild grab for the knife, which was unnecessary because Loki had pinned Malekith to the ground so no one was paying attention to said knife anyway.

Still, Tony felt proud as he scrambled to his knees and knee-walked towards the other two so as not to be swept away.

"Hey, fucker, suck on this!" he yelled, and threw the knife.

It missed Malekith (unfortunately) and Loki (thankfully) and hit the consul, skidding along the ice before clattering to the ground.

For a moment, the three stared at each other.

Then Loki snapped, "Idiot."

Malekith laughed, a touch hysterically. "What are you going to do, Loki? We are at an impasse. You can die or join. Forget the mortal!"

"I'm afraid we are not at an impasse," Loki said, far too calm for someone in the middle of a destructive machine, facing an enemy that wanted him dead.

And two objects flew BACK through the bifrost.

Malekith made a heroic effort to get free, and actually knocked Loki back against the ice. Tony grabbed the nearest item, what looked like a gun, whipped around, and shot it.

Wires shot out towards Malekith, hitting him in the chest and he went down.

"Take that!" Tony yelled, more thankful than he thought he'd ever be for a taser, of all things. "You're not dealing with a puny mortal! You're dealing with a fucking genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist and Rock of Ages!"

Malekith snarled and lunged back up, but Tony shot again and he fell down. But the bastard wouldn't pass out.

"Stark!" Loki's voice called, from behind him. "Move!"

Tony stepped aside and looked back. Set against the backdrop of the bifrost light headed to destroy Earth, with, of all things, his scepter in his hands, Loki looked like the fucking bringer of the apocalypse. His expression was one of cold fury, all directed at one person.

He directed the scepter at Malekith and shot pure blue energy at him. It hit Malekith square in the chest and he was blasted back towards the consul, where he lay still.

Then he turned to Tony, the cold fury still present.

"Don't look at me like that," Tony yelled.

Loki turned away and stalked towards the consul. He raised his scepter, flipped it over, and stabbed the pointed end into the consul. Sparks flew, ice cracked, and then the bifrost groaned. Loki stabbed again and again and again, a harsh scream escaping his throat and echoing in the cavernous room as the bifrost winds died down, and the light faded, and then everything became still and dark but for Loki's heavy breathing.

A crack like a gunshot broke the silence, and Tony threw his hands over his head as the walls surrounding them crumbled.

Then it was just the two of them, breathing heavily.

"So," Tony said, "um, I think our ride's broken."

Loki sighed, long-suffering, and turned around. The anger had faded and was replaced with weariness. "Stark, I can travel between the worlds."

"Oh, yeah," Tony said weakly. "Wanna take us home? 'Cause I'm kind of done with this place and I'm not sure how you got that or why I have a taser in my hand and I could really use a-a-"

Loki walked closer. "A what?" he asked, his voice gone soft.

Tony closed his eyes. He felt Loki's hand touch his arm, firm. "-a break," he finished.

Around them, one world vanished and was replaced with another.

* * *

They arrived in D.C. Everything wasn't destroyed, but it had been a close thing. Buildings were devastated. The city had been evacuated. Even the Capitol building showed some damage.

They were surrounded by agents and Avengers. The SHIELD agents were quick to cuff Loki, despite Thor's and Tony's protests. Loki made the scepter disappear and then stared down the SHIELD agents as if daring them to ask for it.

Blood dripped from underneath his leathers.

Then came the questions, like why was Loki there? Was he behind it? Where was Tony's suit? Why did Jane suddenly appear in D.C. with her half-finished tech and Loki's scepter, which had been in a top-secret lab a few minutes ago?

Tony felt like collapsing in a nest of blankets, but he looked at the confused and angry faces around him and felt that he, at the very least, owed them some explanation.

"It was an elf," he said.

"Bullshit," Clint snapped. "Did he do the mind thing to you with the scepter? What kind of bullshit-"

"He looks clean," Natasha said, clearly skeptical regardless of the color of Tony's eyes.

"There are no such things as elves," Steve said.

"Elves exist in two realms," Thor informed him. "There are Dark Elves and-"

"Fine," Fury snapped, "there are Elves. That doesn't mean that this fucker," he gestured to Loki, who bared his teeth, "isn't responsible. He wasn't here when the bifrost appeared. He only came after."

"He was in the bifrost. And the elf part is true," Tony added. "His name was Malekith, What happened?"

"Wait!" This from Jane, who was behind several of the agents. She pushed herself forward. "Loki called me," she said, breathlessly, "and somehow I ended up here with his scepter in my hands. I think that was his magic. But he said to use my technology—I've been trying to create a bifrost myself, and he told me how to use it to bring objects through. And I did what he said and I'm assuming that helped him stop the bifrost from the other end."

Everyone stared at her.

"And what happened to that technology, Miss Foster?" Fury asked.

"Doctor Foster," Jane corrected, "and it burnt to ash as soon as objects went through. Which is a shame. I wanted to test it on other things."

"In the wrong hands that technology is dangerous," Thor said, "as we have seen here. Jane-"

"It's fine," Jane said. But she looked a bit disappointed.

"Yes," Loki spoke up from his place cuffed between two agents, "Jane Foster helped save your world."

"And why did you help?" Clint asked. "It wasn't because you like us or anything. There's a catch."

"That is my business, Agent Barton," Loki said.

Fury turned to him. "Look, I've had it up to here with your antics. You're still a threat you escaped from SHIELD, and we don't know that you weren't in line with this elf character. So here's what's going to happen-"

Loki chose this moment to disappear.

"Motherfucker," Clint hissed.

"Hey guys," Tony said. Everyone turned to look at him. "I'd love to chat, and I'd really love to know how Loki does that, but I think I need a nap."

Fury rolled his eyes. "Banner, escort Stark to the nearest hotel."

Stark slept like he was dead that night.

* * *

The next morning, over a solemn breakfast of eggs and bacon in a hotel room, Thor asked Tony, "was the elf truly Malekith?"

Tony nodded. He swallowed his eggs and said, "he seemed like a real dick."

Thor nodded. "Yes, that would be him." A pause. "Did Loki say anything?"

"Loki says lots of things," Tony said. "Some of them might have even been sentences."

"You know what I mean," Thor said. "Did he say why he was helping?"

Tony knew the answer to that. He knew he should tell Thor. He knew that Loki probably didn't want Thor to know. Loki wasn't ready for Thor to be on his side, even if Thor had been on his side the whole time.

"He said something about not being Malekith's friend," Tony answered, "and not wanting to work with the Frost Giants. Malekith wanted to work with the Frost Giants."

Thor looked disappointed and relieved at the same time. "I see," was all he said. He stood up. "I must go to Jane. I wish to speak to her about yesterday."

"Take your time."

"Will you be fine alone?"

"Of course."

Thor nodded and left. Tony took a deep breath and stared at the ceiling. The other Avengers had already gone out to start the cleanup, but they had allowed Tony some time to himself. Maybe it was because they didn't trust him, or maybe it was because he had been dead tired yesterday afternoon.

Either way, he was grateful.

"You lied to him," a cool voice said.

Tony nearly fell out of his chair. He jumped up and turned to see Loki leaning against the wall. He looked as tired as Tony felt.

"I didn't lie," Tony said. "I just omitted some details."

Loki considered him for a moment. Then he took a deep breath and said, "Malekith made yet another crucial mistake. Even if he had successfully disarmed us, he wouldn't have brought the Frost Giants to their former glory. They would not have been able to form a complete, threatening army."

"Why not?" Tony asked.

Loki smirked. "Malekith believed that he could steal the Casket of the Ancient Winters, the source of the Frost Giant's former power, from Asgard after destroying it. What he didn't know is that I have the Casket."

"Oh." Tony frowned. "Shouldn't you give it back or something?"

"Perhaps in time," Loki said, "though it is mine by right."

"Right," Tony said, because he didn't know how politics on other planets worked, or the full details about Loki's heritage, and it was something he was too tired to deal with at the moment. Then something else occurred to him. "You saved my life."

Loki took a step closer. "I told you to trust me." And another step. "Do you trust me?" And another. They were almost too close now.

"No," Tony said. "I'm not an idiot."

Loki's eyes studied him, intense. "No, you're not," he murmured. "You have a brilliant mind, one worth knowing."

Tony allowed himself a grin. "Is that a compliment?"

"It's a fact," Loki said.

"Should I trust you?" Tony asked.

Loki's lips thinned. He stepped back. "I don't know," he said, finally.

Tony nodded. "Right. Right. Well, thanks for, you know. Helping."

Loki nodded.

"Are you gonna, um, come back?" Tony asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Back," Loki repeated.

"Well, because you're a pretty smart guy yourself," Tony explained, "and I think that, as you said about me, your mind is worth knowing, too. I like smart people. You know, there's Bruce, who's brilliant and we're really good friends and he teaches me new things and I teach him new things and-"

"I am not Banner," Loki said.

"No, you're not," Tony agreed. "But it doesn't have to be all cloaks and daggers-sometimes literally, which is really not okay-and fighting and half-answers and maybe-favors and non-trust. You could show me what you know and I could show you what I know and you don't have to keep running or hating or trying to kill Thor or whatever it is you do."

Loki watched him for a moment. His eyes looked over bright, but only for a moment.

Then he murmured, "You ask much of me, Stark."

"I know," Tony said. "Yeah, I mean, I have high standards. Sorry. That's how I am. I now the Thor thing would be difficult, I don't know all the details but I know it would be hard, but the other stuff would be a good start."

"For so long," Loki said, "that has not been who I am. Even before."

Tony didn't have to ask before what. He knew before what. He sighed and said, "Well, I have to show my face out there sometime. But, you know, for what it's worth, you make my life a hell of a lot more interesting."

"Compliments will get you nowhere, Stark," Loki said.

"It's a fact," Tony said.

Loki smirked, and then the smirk faded away, and for a moment he looked…longing. And then that, too, disappeared behind a mask of carefully constructed coolness.

"See you around," Tony said, because it was clear that Loki was getting ready to leave. He turned around.

And then Loki's voice, closer, softer, murmured, "Perhaps."

Tony shivered and turned around.

There was nothing but empty air and a lingering chill.


End file.
